


Guardian Blue: Season 3

by Alps_Sarsis



Series: Guardian Blue [8]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Comedy, Friendship, Honor, Hurt/Comfort, Police, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 06:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13874982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alps_Sarsis/pseuds/Alps_Sarsis
Summary: A new interim chief and a fresh, deep and meaningful relationship are the starting point for this next chapter in the life and adventures of Nick and Judy. They have been through a lot, but sometimes just day to day life can offer more challenges than the most harrowing case.





	1. Returning

 

****Guardian Blue: Season Three** **

_ _Episode 1:  Returning_ _

 

They sat again in a mostly dark room.  There were the familiar wood-paneled and mostly sound-proof walls.  Impressionist paintings with muted colors and natural, harmless imagery were at perfectly even intervals along the walls.  A velvet-lined overly-comfortable chair not intended for a mammal less than three times her size was where the bunny rested nervously.  These were all cozy features that Judy wished she were not so familiar with.  Sitting across from her in a chair pulled in front of her own desk so she wasn’t hiding behind it was Dr. Carlisle.  Judy’s least favorite part of this was the divider again.  Why did she insist on making it so she couldn’t see Nick?  There had to be a reason.  She did it last time, and now this time.  The other unnerving part was that expression.  Carlisle looked like Nick did when he stood in front of an assorted cheese platter.  A slightly uncomfortable silence passed before Nick finally seemed unwilling to wait anymore.

 

“I had a dream that I was in that weird Bunny Pop video from the 90s, ‘Mister Fox’.  It was awful.”

 

Judy sighed heavily.  This was an important visit!  “Ignore him, he’s insufferable today.”  She glared at the divider as if Nick could see her through it, her ears back in frustration, little wiggling nose wrinkled.

 

“How is he usually?” asked the doctor.  Judy snapped her attention back to the skunk.  Okay, Carlisle was like a steel trap waiting for a random topic to wander by and Judy just dove right into it.

 

“Amazing,” Nick responded immediately.  The doe winced on her side of the divider.  That would be seen as a character flaw for sure!  His ego had to take a break when he was visiting with a therapist, surely!

 

“That one was directed to Judy,” the skunk said with a patient smile.

 

“She’s also amazing.  You know, she should be a police officer.  She’d make a good one,” Nick insisted.

 

“We’re working on that, Nicholas,” Carlisle said.  It was __still__ like claws on a blackboard, hearing her say his name.  It just sounded all wrong.

 

Judy could see the mephit writing in her notebook.  This wasn’t even about him, what was she writing?  This was going badly.  Why could he not be serious?  She knew they were supposed to act naturally, but this was not the time for banter.  There would be time for that later!

 

“Focus!” the bunny finally snapped.  “We don’t get to stay in here as long as we want.” Judy briskly tried to dismiss the behavior of her light-hearted partner.  “Nick is being playful right now, but he’s like that if there’s a lot of stress.  It’s how he diffuses it.”  She didn’t want the therapist to think they weren’t taking this seriously.  The bunny still needed to be cleared to return to active duty.  Having Nick summarily __removed__ from it right when she got back would not be helpful!

 

“I know that already.  I’m his therapist,” Carlisle responded.  “I want to know what __you__ know about him?  This is what I usually see when dealing with him.  What does Judy see when no one else is around?  How does he act when it’s just the two of you?  Out on patrol.  Hanging out off duty.  Together, at home…”  The last part was mentioned with a bit more weight.  The bunny knew very well what Carlisle was getting at.

 

“Uh…” Nick seemed to worry about that.  “This visit’s still about Officer Hopps, right?”

 

Judy answered quickly.  “He’s reassuring, supportive, and kind.  He likes to laugh and he can tell when I’m working too hard, so he will distract me at what feels like the wrong time… but is always the right time.”  There was silence from Nick’s side.  

 

Carlisle spoke in a quieter tone.  “You hinted last time I met with you both that the two of you might be in a closer relationship than just work partners.”  Judy sucked in a deep breath.  Yeah, that’s where the skunk was going with this.  It was expected.  “…and I have heard the hints of rumblings of whispered secrets that it might even be even __bigger__ than dinner and a movie.”

 

“Clawhauser,” Nick and Judy said simultaneously.

 

The doctor bridged her slender mephit fingers in front of her.  “It is curious… For literally everything else, you two haven’t been even the slightest bit cagey, and the thing that’s public record you shuffle your feet on.  I feel like you are having fun with this.”

 

“I just don’t feel like it has much bearing on our duties.  It’s not like this developed three days ago.”  Judy knew her mate’s explanation was carefully planned.  They knew it would come up, and they didn’t want it to have any bearing on Judy being cleared for duty.  

 

The bunny had been in for two sessions on her own, and they talked about nothing except the events in The Interior, her injuries, how her family handled everything that had happened to her, and what she was dreaming about.  Judy had been in therapy when Nick was lost under the city, and it felt pretty much the same.  A lot of focus on how Judy was feeling, and how she felt about how she was being treated.  With Nick there, the questions were different.

 

“Nicholas, are you concerned that your answers here will prevent your wife from returning to duty?” asked Carlisle.  Judy knew that the skunk worded her question carefully and specifically.  Nick would have to deny what Judy was if that was incorrect, but it was obvious that it was not.

 

“Correct.” Nick said, answering her and simultaneously verifying what the skunk had been told.

 

“Do you want her to return to active duty?” she asked.

 

Judy furrowed her brow, dropping her ears back again.  Why would she ask that?  Oh.  Oh no.

 

“I do.” Nick verified.

 

“Desk duty is far less dangerous.  You won’t be placed in the position of feeling responsible if she is injured.”  Judy felt a wave of fear.  Had Nick talked to Carlisle about that?  Had he told her he was afraid to let her go back to active duty because she’d almost been killed?  She knew it was hard on him, but they had talked about it.  She even asked him if he was ready to start cleaning up the mean streets with her again.

 

Nick was quiet a moment, the skunk peering back at him, though Judy could not see his expression.  He finally spoke.

 

“Doctor Carlisle… I know that you have not forgotten what happened to me several months ago.  And I know you haven’t forgotten what we have both likely explained that we went through in The Interior.  I don’t worry about whether or not I can protect Judy.  She is every bit as capable as I am.  I fear losing her.  I fear seeing her hurt.  But… I know this is what she’s chosen to do with her life, and she chose to walk this path knowing the risk.  Two years ago, knowing the same risks, I chose to walk this path with her.  Don’t make me a deciding factor for Judy serving alongside me.  I need her out there helping to make Zootopia safe, not converting paw-written reports to digital.”  The bunny held her breath.  Nick seemed to have actually considered that specific conversation.  Either that, or he was just really that certain about his response.

 

The mephit spoke again in that casual, soothing tone.  “Rest assured, Nicholas, unless your partner starts inexplicably knocking over the furniture in my office, she will be clear to return to work.”  Judy restrained a sigh of relief.  She was so sick of being at a desk.

 

“Can I knock stuff over?” asked Nick with his smuggest tone.

 

“Nick!” Judy hissed.

 

“I don’t see why not,” Carlisle asked.  Judy’s heart lurched.  No!  Don’t encourage-

 

__Whumph_ _

 

Down the divider between her and Nick went.  Judy looked in utter horror at her smiling mate.  He sat back down in casual satisfaction.  The bunny cupped her paws over her little muzzle.

 

“Better?” asked Carlisle.

 

“Lots,” Nick chirped, smiling at the doe brightly.  He looked so freaking proud of himself!  How different were his sessions here?  How could he just show… what was that, even?  Destructive tendencies?  What was he thinking?  Did Carlisle actually expect him to do that?  It was a puzzle to Judy how he’d managed to pass the initial psychological evaluation.  She felt like if she had done this she’d have been committed!

 

The doctor pulled her from her quiet cringing.  “So, let’s talk about married life, Judy.  Are there things about Nick that make this unusual relationship difficult?”

 

“I’ve recently learned that he knocks over furniture when merely presented with the opportunity,” the bunny said, her voice rising slowly in pitch at her partner’s behavior.

 

“You can put the divider back up if you like - it’s quite light,” the skunk explained.

 

Judy tried to relax.  The doctor wasn’t upset about it.  She seemed to almost expect it.  “That’s not the problem.  He just… I mean, __I__  would never…”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Because it’s just not polite.”

 

“I told him he could,” informed Carlisle casually.

 

“What if he knocked your whole desk over?” Judy asked sharply, not understanding why Nick got to knock anything over at all.

 

“It would have been way louder,” Nick offered.  A bewildered Judy stared back at his pleased mug.

 

“He could have.  But he didn’t.  He knocked over the screen.”  Carlisle said this in such a supportive tone.  However, Judy immediately realized what had happened.  The skilled doctor provided Nick with an opportunity out of sheer curiosity over what he’d do with that leeway.  What he did must have answered some question or offered data to some measurement.  The doe’s heart sank.  Nick chose to behave in a destructive manner in order to remove the barrier between him and his bunny.  That could __definitely__ be seen as affecting their job.

 

“Judy, if I told you that you could knock anything in my office over without any repercussion… what would you knock over?” asked Carlisle.

 

“Nick.” the doe deadpanned.  The doctor and her partner both laughed hard.  Judy was not as amused, but she did relax a little.  It felt so much less formal than her usual visits.

 

“So, back to my earlier question, Judy…”  The bunny perked up.  “Any real difficulties?”

 

“Those don’t apply to our job,” the bunny defended.

 

“Judy… to believe that the other twelve to sixteen hours a day have no effect on the applicable eight or so is absolutely not realistic,” the skunk stated.

 

“You will think it’s dishonest when I tell you this, but there’s really no difficulty with the relationship,” Judy said with a sigh.  “It’s the truth.  I’ve never been so happy in my entire life as I was when Nick joined it.  At first, I thought it was just that I was a cop.  It happened at about the same time, and that was what I had wanted since I was a kit.  I figured that I was happy because I made a difference, and I was needed, and I just had the whole self-actualization thing going on.  Then I started realizing that a part of that happiness that had been there the whole time had more and more to do with why I enjoyed it.  I realized slowly that I needed him more than anything else.”

 

“If I told you that you had to choose… Your life with him, or your life as a police officer… would you choose him?” asked the doctor.  The question itself made Judy feel sick.  She could very well mean it like it sounded.  She might be forced to choose.

 

When she thought Nick had been killed, Judy actually thought very hard about whether or not she could continue being an officer.  There were times, right after it happened, that she wasn’t sure she could even resume being a bunny.  Nothing had ever hurt so bad.  She did not want to choose, but if she had to…

 

“I would choose Nick.”  The bunny stated this earnestly.

 

“Would that not take away from the citizens of Zootopia though?  Your dream was to make it a better place, you said.  You would stop doing that if it meant you could not have Nicholas?”  The bunny winced again at her use of his full name.

 

It was her mate who answered.  “Do you truly think that if Judy were forced to stop being a police officer… that she’d stop making Zootopia a better place?”  Judy’s ears went up and she looked over the fallen divider at Nick.  He smiled genuinely at her.

 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you make that expression, Officer Wilde,” came the somewhat teasing tone of the mephit in her chair.

 

“It’s reserved,” he answered.

 

“You know that there will be some in the city who do not agree with your life-arrangement,” explained the doctor.

 

“They aren’t involved.  I’m not vowed to any of them,” Nick stated.

 

“Have your families been supportive of this arrangement?” asked the doctor.  It was a sensible question.

 

“Yes, on both sides,” the bunny replied.

 

“And the public?” asked the mephit.

 

“Largely unaware,” Nick replied.  “Most treat it like a rumor and the media’s laser focused on the other fox-bunny pair.  We don’t go out of our way to make it anyone’s business.”

 

“How about your coworkers?” inquired Carlisle.

 

Nick answered.  “If they aren’t supportive it’s because they just aren’t interested.”

 

Judy added, “And Chief Tora still doesn’t believe we are really married, I think.  She still uses our different last names.  But… that might just be to avoid assignment confusion.  That’s possible.”  She didn’t want to imply there was animosity toward the new chief.  There really wasn’t.  The tigress had not been abusive or anything, she just hadn’t paid much attention to the smallest officers.

 

“How are you getting along with Tora?  I know you voiced some concerns that she might not approve of the two of you as officers.”  Judy glanced at Nick first.  She was not supposed to ask for help dealing with their new chief.  He didn’t want to create drama where there was none.  The doe had told Carlisle about the discussion that prompted such concerns, but the bunny made it clear they intended to give Tora some time.

 

“She’s not given us a lot of attention, honestly.  But I’ve been at a desk and Nick’s been on fluff assignments.” Judy explained.  “I think she sees us as an unnecessary distraction to the other officers.  But even Bogo was skeptical at first.  I’m sure she’ll be happy with our performance just like he was.”

 

“Has Tora interfered directly with the performance of your duties?” asked the doctor.  There was definite concern in her voice.

 

“It’s not that she was ever outright hostile I guess… I just got the feeling that she thought our promotion… maybe our being officers at all… was a little fishy.”

 

“Well, I don’t know the ethics of my mentioning this, but as she’s not directly my patient, I will state that I have been encouraged by our interim chief to help you return to duty, Officer Hopps.”  Judy perked at that.  She saw that Nick did too.  “I won’t say more, but you should not stress about that.  Continue to do your best.  I am clearing you to return to duty.”

 

“Yes!” Nick and Judy both cheered.

 

“However, speaking of fishy…” the doctor remarked, “I was curious about the mentioned dietary preference which was alluded to in a previous visit.”  Judy stared back at her with wide eyes.  Oh.  No, that had nothing to do with her mental health.

 

“I uh… I have eaten fish a couple of times, is all.  I wouldn’t call it a dietary preference…”  The bunny looked uneasily at her mate.  He didn’t seem stressed by it.  Nick wouldn’t eat fish, and he’d been forced to when he was trapped under the city.  Doing so had hurt him terribly.

 

“You have done this by accident, then?” asked the skunk.

 

“The first time, yes.” Judy answered.

 

“How did that happen?” asked the mephit.

 

“I was accidentally given tuna in a salad.  I didn’t notice right away because of all the dressing.” Judy explained.  No harm in her mate knowing about that.

 

“Wait, in the cafeteria?” asked Nick with a worried tone.  Great, now he was going to obsess over his salads.  Judy nodded slowly.

 

“And you ate it again after that?  Do you like it?” Carlisle asked.

 

“I don’t…”  She looked at Nick with worry.  “I don’t hate it?”  She wanted to be honest.  It’s not like she was going to just order a tuna sandwich while they were out, that would be completely insensitive.

 

The doctor responded casually, “However, you don’t normally eat it?  Why not?  It won’t harm you.  In fact, with the physical demands on your body with your line of work, the protein is good for you.”

 

Judy stared blankly at Carlisle.  She was there, surely she understood why.  “Nick…”  She hoped that was enough to remind her.

 

“Nick won’t let you eat it?” she asked.

 

“I never said she couldn’t.  She doesn’t stop me from eating shrimp,” Nick informed.  His tone made it obvious that he didn’t want to be seen as controlling, and he really hadn’t ever expressly told Judy not to.  She’d just never asked.

 

“I am pretty sure there are social reasons for me to maybe not order a tuna salad at lunch, Dr. Carlisle.”  Judy said this with a smile to imply she wasn’t offended.

 

“And those social reasons might discourage you from marrying a fox,” the mephit informed.  She really did seem to just be trying to figure all of it out.  There was so much going on there.  Judy knew she would be neck deep in it when she got there.

 

“I don’t love the fish.  That’s different,” Judy explained.

 

“So… you care about what society thinks unless it’s something you love.”  Carlisle said this with an air of authority.

 

“I guess.  Sometimes.”  Judy wasn’t sure what point she was trying to make.

 

Nick spoke up.  “Society didn’t agree with Carrots being a cop, but that was what she loved.  And she ended up with a badge.”  Judy glanced back to her partner and smiled.  “Society might not believe she should be with me… but she loved that too… and now she’s got a fox.  You know what else she’d love?  A sweet cherry red Mustang.”  Nick nodded.  “Yup.  So I just gotta wait for it.”  The bunny rolled her eyes.  She thought… she truly believed… he was having a serious moment.

 

The doctor laughed at that.  “Thank you Nicholas, I’m sure you will both enjoy it.”  She looked at the clock and then turned to the next page of her notebook. “We are out of time, but I think we have taken care of what we needed to.  I do have a one more matter I wish to discuss… something I wish to ask as a favor.”

 

“If we can help, we will,” Judy answered.

 

“May I document the details of our sessions in regard to your relationship?  This is a situation which has never been carefully or reliably documented.”  Judy recoiled at that a little.  She hadn’t expected to have that asked of her.  It was almost certainly not part of Carlisle’s job.

 

“We aren’t an experiment to study, Doctor.” Nick stated.  “This might advance your career, but I honestly would not have figured you for the type.”

 

“You’re right, I’m not the type,” Carlisle said softly.  “There are not many resources in the psychology community for understanding and discussing situations like yours.  Nicholas… you and Judy are very deeply bonded, highly intelligent, physically healthy and well adjusted.”

 

“Please don’t stop,” Nick said with a grin.  Judy pitched a pillow at him.

 

The skunk continued, “There are many mammals who are not so fortunate in their relationship, and there are lots of problems that can arise.  Knowing how the two of you face those problems, how you support one another, and what you do to cope with the differences and the feedback of others may be a great help to others.  I don’t have to include your names, though I suppose most could guess.”

 

“We aren’t hiding, we just aren’t advertising,” Nick explained again.

 

“You can refuse, it won’t have any bearing on anything going forward, but I would like to meet with you both once monthly and just talk about how your lives are going.  If you would be willing, I will even allow you to write the schedule.”

 

Nick answered calmly, “I defer to my wife on this.”  It pleased Judy every single time he called her that, and it was actually pretty rare that he used it around others who were not directly and closely involved with them, like family or close friends.

 

“I will allow it,” Judy stated in a slow, earnest tone, “But I have a requirement… completely non-negotiable.”  She glanced back at her curious-looking partner.

 

Carlisle answered evenly, “I appreciate this, Judy.  I will meet this requirement if I can.  What is it you would ask of me?”

 

The doe pointed at her mate and gazed hard at the skunk.  “Stop calling him Nicholas.”

 

 

 

 *************

 

 

 

The overcast skies overhead might be a bit of a drag to most, but to Judy it was salvation.  Grey, heavy clouds laden with the threat of rain were still absolutely not the poorly installed flickering fluorescent lights of the records department.  She was free.  She had not made Nick switch the seating in their cruiser, so he was getting to drive for a change and that left Judy looking out at the passing traffic.  She didn’t know what the best part actually was.  Getting out of the station was nice, sure, but she was back with her partner.  

 

The doe had originally worried that everything would be different with the personal changes that had occurred between them.  They had not actually been patrolling together since Nick had vowed up to her months ago.  In reality, on patrol, things quickly slipped into normalcy.  The only real difference was that Judy actively restrained herself from the normal acts of affection she had readily participated in for the previous months.  She wanted to touch him.  She wanted to gather up his tail and stroke it.  She wanted to push in close to him.  It was now that she was supposed to resist it that she realized how often she did it.  Surely it had to annoy him, how clingy she’d been.  He never complained though.  He was a good mate.

 

“You’ve been kind of quiet,” Judy said, gazing at her fox.  “What’s on your mind, Slick?”

 

“Our coming assignment.  You know it won’t be easy.  You have to know that.”

 

“I saw you flinch in the bullpen when Tora said it.”  The doe was concerned about it then, but Nick had seemed pretty normal after that.  It had likely been because it was so good to be back on patrol.

 

“I think she researched the coin,” the fox said.  “She seems the type.”

 

“Wait, what?” Judy replied, “You mean you think this it some kind of reprisal?”

 

“No, not a reprisal,” Nick stated, “That would be unprofessional.  I don’t get that vibe from her.  This is more… a warning.  She can, completely inside the rules, make things harder for us.”

 

“So, the getting is off?” Judy asked, a sliver of hope in her voice.

 

“No.  It’s gotten worse.” Nick said with a stern expression.

 

“So you know, any officer could have been assigned like we did.  It might just be coincidence.”  She really did not want Nick getting in trouble with whatever he was planning.  Still, he’d assured Judy they would not.  She wanted to trust him.  It was deeply important to Judy that Nick __knew__  that she trusted him completely.  She had not honestly pushed her mate to drop the getting.

 

“Were it any other officer, any other time, I might think that,” her mate responded calmly.  “She’s assigned us to patrol Happytown, starting tomorrow.  And she smiled during that assignment.  I am not sure you notice that stuff as often, but I’m a former confidence mammal.  That was the only time she smiled during that whole briefing.”  Judy’s ears fell back slowly.  Okay, that was harder to refute.

 

“It won’t be so different from our usual patrols.  Crime’s a bit higher there, but we can handle it.”  The bunny crossed her arms.  They could handle this.

 

“Oh, I know we can.  For everything that Happytown promises to be, it’s certainly not the lawlessness and danger of The Interior, or fighting Bellwether’s goons without backup.  But it stands to reason that Tora does __not__  think we are up to the task.  Maybe this is her way of testing us too.  Who knows?  But I won’t lie… I am irritated by it.  It’s out of precinct.”

 

“We’ve been sent out of precinct before.” Judy informed.

 

“For Fluff Assignments, yes.  Not on patrol.”

 

“She said additional presence was required,” Judy played Devil’s Advocate.  “They sent Grizzoli clear out to Fenrir on assignment for the same reason back last Spring.  But… I do agree.  The timing and her smile seem… to at least suggest something was up.”

 

“Well, not looking forward to it.”

 

“Because you lived there when you were a kit?” she asked.

 

Nick sighed.  “Because so many mammals there are just… broken.  You want to help Zootopia, and that’s the place you are going to find the most mammals who just… stopped wanting help.  It’s not much different for me, but you, Fluff… It’s gonna be a lot harder for you.”  Judy straightened a bit in her seat and gazed at her fox.  His eyes were on the road, but he seemed pained.  That was what this was about?  She remembered that he seemed pained, almost a year ago when she had found out about what he thought had happened to his mother.  He was upset, not just because of what he felt had occurred, but because it was a hurt she couldn’t heal.  He was very sensitive to her need to help. It only endeared her to him more in that moment.

 

“We will be fine, Nick.  And assignments aren’t permanent.  We will swallow this pill and move on.”

 

“I know, Carrots.  But I don’t have to like it.”

 

The radio crackled.  “Dispatch to Baker 914, Baker 914 please copy…”

 

Judy picked up the radio.  It was overly large in her paw.  “Dispatch, this is Baker 914, we copy.”

 

The radio crackled again, Clawhauser’s voice pushing through static.  It was good to hear him on this side of the radio again.  “Baker 914, 10-23 The Gilded Meadow restaurant on Hill Boulevard and Otterdam for a disturbance call.”  Judy did not flip on the siren since they were not requested to run Code 3.  That meant that the disturbance was likely an argument, not a fight.

 

The ride there was quick.  They were located very close by, which was why they got the call.  The Gilded Meadow was a semi-fancy diner-type establishment that catered to pretty much everybody.  They had the absolute finest salads and wraps that side of town, and Nick always enjoyed their bread sticks.  He claimed that they somehow managed to make them the exact depth of his muzzle which made them perfect.  They buttered them with a sprinkle of garlic salt and herbs.  They had a picture of them on the sign over the door, as it was the focus of social media attention about the restaurant too.

 

“Oh good, someone called.”  Judy’s sensitive ears picked up conversation from one of a couple of zebras outside.  Judy hopped out.

 

“Woah, sending out the enforcers for this one!” the other zebra gasped.  Judy honestly wasn’t sure if they were making a wise-crack about her size and effectiveness, or if he was referring more to her unfounded reputation as given by the media.  She was still dealing with the residual effects of the news coverage about her rescue of her partner, and her still-mysterious involvement with blowing the gates off of what was now being called the ‘Lanolin Massacre’.

 

The pair of officers ignored the zebra and headed inside, where they could already hear shouting.  Judy cringed heavily as she instantly recognized the voice.

 

“Oh no.  No, not these two…”  Nick looked at her with concern, and then slammed his ears back tight at the loud yelling.

 

“No, you caused this and now we can’t come back!  Why can’t you shut your mouth?!”  The officers made it through the entryway and into the restaurant proper.  A bunch of miserable mammals sat in their chairs trying to enjoy their food over the din of argument.  The familiar kudu and oryx were at the center of attention.

 

“Oh thank goodness,” a wallaby said over her hardly touched salad, looking plaintively to the officers.

 

“Bucky, Pronk, outside with us.  Now.”  Judy’s stern tone was downright motherly.  She couldn’t help it.  She knew these two and this was embarrassing.  The two ungulates stared with huge, round eyes at her.

 

Pronk groaned miserably.  “Now look what you did!”

 

“Me?!” Bucky shouted.

 

“Out.  Now.” Judy growled.  The pair began to file out behind Nick.

 

“This is all your fault!” Bucky whined.

 

“They haven’t paid yet!” cried a portly raccoon in a vest and slacks - most likely the manager.

 

Nick pointed out, “You can wait out their bickering to make them pay, but you’ll end up having to comp a bunch more meals from the folks forced to listen to it.”  There was a roar of applause in the restaurant to show support for what Nick was saying.  The manager shrunk back, gritting his teeth fearfully.  He certainly didn’t want that.  The officers could have the pair of loud ruminates.  Mammals loved logical conclusions, Judy had found.  Someone arriving and talking sense when the situation had been all nonsense was a celebrated event in Zootopia.

 

They finally got outside and the two hoofed mammals leaned against the building with unhappy expressions.

 

“Are we under arrest?” asked Pronk.

 

“Not yet, but we were called to a disturbance,” answered Judy.  “We have removed you from that location intent on keeping the peace.  I trust the argument can wait until you get home?”  This was not new to them, nor was it ever a matter of violence.  She knew that.  They were just loud.  Judy had never considered that they might be the same pretty much everywhere they went.

 

“We can’t go home, little bunny,” Bucky said dolefully.  “Pronk’s sister threw us out.”

 

“For being loud?” asked Nick.

 

“Yes!” shouted Pronk loudly.

 

“She works nights.” Bucky explained.

 

The bunny sighed heavily.  “Yeah, I can see that being a problem.  The apartment’s not renovated yet?”

 

“It ain’t gonna be!” Pronk yelled.

 

“Set to be demolished.” his companion grumbled.  “Even be banks didn’t want that eyesore.”  Judy cringed obviously.

 

Pronk crossed his arms.  “Still living with the fox, I take it?” he asked.

 

“That’s now a permanent arrangement.” Judy explained, looking at her partner.

 

“What, didja get married?”

 

“Rude!” yelled Bucky.  “Oh…”  The follow up from him was based on the fact that Nick was practically gushing smug.  

 

“Wait, really?” asked Pronk.  “Seriously?”

 

Bucky chimed in.  “The actor and now them.  Soon, no one’s gonna give two swatted flies about us.” he laughed.

 

“No one already does.  Because you’re too __loud!__ ” yelled Pronk.

 

“Let’s pull focus back where it needs to be,” Nick suggested.  “You can’t get into these loud arguments in crowded places.  At the least, you irritate the mammals around you, and at worst, you two could probably cause physical damage to a fennec.”  

 

“Sorry,” groaned Bucky.

 

“Yeah, sorry,” Pronk offered.

 

Nick took out his ticket book.  There was a fearful squeak from Bucky.  

 

“I said sorry!” he whimpered.

 

The fox shook his head and started writing.  “Without arguing, and making as little sound as you can, one of you will wait outside, the other will go inside and pay your bill.  Then, I want the one standing outside to call this number.  Let them know you are one of the mammals who lost their home to that apartment being condemned.  They started a program to help mammals displaced by that because there were so many with no where to go.”

 

“Really?  That… That’s really helpful…” murmured Bucky, sounding as if he were near tears.  Judy was not used to hearing him show any emotion but anger and frustration.

 

“I will go pay,” replied his mate dutifully.

 

“Thank you.”  Judy wondered if they fought like that when there was a lot of stress, and if they had just always been under stress in the apartment.

 

Nick seemed to feel the same way, as he spoke up.  “Have you two considered maybe taking breaks and doing a day spa together or something so you could spend time outside of your worries and troubles?  It’s hard on mammals to deal with it all the time.”

 

“We had a thing each week at the MSO, actually.  Do you know what that is?” asked Bucky as his mate disappeared through the doors.

 

“We know.” Nick stated with a grin.  Judy looked away, hoping her ears weren’t red.

 

“He had to stop going when the Nighthowler thing was going on.  It was packed.  Mammals were literally hiding out there like it was some kind of paradise quarantine.”  Judy put her fingertips to her muzzle.  She had not realized that had happened, but it made sense.  That place was practically a fortress.  There was a high wall all the way around it.

 

“I suggest you make a point of going back there, then,” Nick stated.  “It would be good for you both.  You need some down time where no one’s worried about stress.”

 

“I don’t mean to be ungrateful,” the larger mammal murmured, “but why does any of that matter to you?  We’re out of the building, not yelling, and you’ve kept the peace.  And we might have been Judy’s neighbors, but we were not exactly great to her.”

 

“It’s part of the long game.  You don’t have to understand.  Just try to find some happiness in this city.  I can’t give it to you, I just promise to you that it’s there.”

 

“I…” stammered Bucky, “Thank you.”  He then took his cell phone from his pocket and started dialing the number Nick had given him.

 

Judy got back into the car with her partner.  He smiled at her.

 

“Well done!” she practically purred.  “It’s so good to be with you again, on the streets, making Zootopia a better place.”

 

“One broken mammal at a time.  Let’s do this.”  Nick happily fist-bumped his partner and wife.

 

There was a beep on Judy’s phone.  She took it out as Nick radioed in their status.

 

Her breath caught.  It was enough to make a squeak that Nick could hear.

 

“Everything okay?” he asked.

 

“It’s an email from Sharla.” Judy answered.  The doe had emailed her friend three times trying to check up on her after Nick’s mother had sent her to New Reynard.  She feared something might have happened to her, but Honey wasn’t answering emails, and when Annie checked on her, the manager of the diner said Honey was not at the bed and breakfast.  A few days of worry, and now there was an email.

 

“Open it…” Nick suggested.

 

“Okay.  Sorry.”  She poked the line on her email list.

 

“Well?” Nick asked.  Judy looked with concern at the very short note.

 

“It says ‘I’m fine.  I don’t need you.’”  Nick cringed at that.

 

“Well… I mean, it’s good that she’s fine, but that seems unduly harsh,” he expressed.

 

“Yeah, but at least nothing terrible happened to her.  She’s safe.  Like you said… she’ll probably get over it eventually.  No need being miffed about it now.  We’ve got a city full of other mammals to help.”

 

The radio crackled in return.  “Baker 914, we have a 10-57 from Misty Acres Retirement Village.  Please 10-23.”  Judy responded in the affirmative and nodded to her partner.

 

Make Zootopia a better place.  One mammal at a time.


	2. Patrolling

 

****Guardian Blue: Season Three** **

_ _Episode 2:  Patrolling_ _

 

 

“Baker 914 to dispatch, the address you gave us is in Little Rodentia.  Please 10-9 that 20 with less wrong 20.”  There was some irritation in Nick’s voice.  Judy could understand.  That morning, they had just dealt with a skunk who was reported to have been trespassing in an art museum.  They arrived on scene and found him laying catatonic on the floor of the lobby.  Shortly before the pair’s arrival, the mammal had simply gone unresponsive.  Nick called for an ambulance but during the wait, the poor mammal had a seizure from whatever combination of prescription medication and recreational substances they contained.

 

Everything and everyone in that entire lobby got sprayed.  No aim, just a fail-arc of olfactory devastation.  Judy ducked, Nick took it square in the face.  Everyone needed the musk-booth.  Skunks were known to occasionally let a cop have it, despite that being its own separate charge, so there was a special, wholly unpleasant shower that was used to allow an officer to scrub out the scent, and then basically get pressure-washed.  

 

Neither of them enjoyed it, but Nick was unhappier by far.  Ever since the Darmaw incident, he showed a very low tolerance to being ‘not clean’, and being sprayed to the level he had been felt as ‘not clean’ as he could get in that moment.  He had just stopped grumbling about the lack of communication on the condition of the mephit trespasser, and now an apparent error in dispatch was not cheering him up.  They were stopped outside the main gate to Little Rodentia, and waited for correction or clarification.

 

A minute or so passed, and Clawhauser’s voice cut back in.

 

“Baker 914, that address is verified, I’m sending a Foalkien.”  Judy groaned along with Nick.  Foalkien wasn’t a person.  It meant that the explanation of what was going on was too complicated to efficiently say over the radio.  Foalkien was an equine writer known for writing out painstakingly every little detail.   Nick pulled up the console in their car and waited a moment.  Finally, the description came through.  Judy read it to herself, knowing Nick was doing the same at about the same speed.

 

“You have __got__  to be kidding,” her partner grumbled.  Judy put a paw over her muzzle.  Several lemmings, possibly as many as four, were in a traffic circle and had managed to get into a ‘follow-loop’.  One was following the second, the second was following the third, the third the fourth, and the fourth was following the first.  Around and around and around, transfixed by the vehicle ahead of them.  The result was that no one else could get into the traffic circle and it had gridlocked Little Rodentia so bad that traffic was beginning to back up onto larger streets.  This created a real safety hazard for the smaller mammals involved.

 

“I hadn’t considered that could happen, but it kind of makes sense…” Judy noted casually.  

 

“The LR precinct can’t handle this?” Nick asked.  Little Rodentia of course had their own police force which specialized in dealing with matters on their side of the fence.  It was just far safer than having a larger officer come in any time something went wrong.  On occasion it was necessary to get help from outside, but not usually.  The mice and rats on their police force usually had things buttoned down so well that the rodent criminal element actually operated in other parts of the city.  

 

Judy answered her weary partner’s question.  “I would imagine their police force is stuck in the traffic as well.  They can’t get a car over there to stop those cars.”

 

Nick picked up the radio.  “Dispatch this is Baker 914, are you giving the all clear to Kaiju?”

 

“Stop calling it that!” Judy snapped.  Mammals had scanners to listen to those conversations.  They needed to be as professional as possible.

 

“You are go to Kaiju, 914,” crackled the cheetah’s reply.  The bunny groaned.  Nick grinned.  He had made this an in joke in the department, and it was maddening.  Mammals had, in the past, broken into Little Rodentia and done serious damage to life and property. It was not a laughing matter!

 

“Wait, slow down.  We have to do this carefully, you remember last time!” Judy hissed at her swift partner.

 

Nick laughed and rolled his verdant eyes.  “You were the one who fell onto the muddy abandoned construction site, then in your panic to look for ‘survivors’, backed into that billboard and left a perfect bunny butt-print on it.  Wasn’t meeeee.”

 

“Will you let that go?!  That was like… a lifetime ago.”  It had happened when Nick was almost fresh out of the academy.  She followed the fox as he punched in the code to open the main gate so that they could safely get in.  The opening of the gate also turned on a bunch of blue lights through the city to inform the mice, rats and other small mammals that an authorized larger mammal had entered their part of the city, and to exercise caution about that.  Failure to do this had nearly gotten Judy canned on her second day on the job.  

 

“No roaring at the school, Nick,” Judy muttered softly.  They didn’t have to be terribly quiet, but Judy always felt like she would sound really loud to the smaller mammals here.

 

“They expect it.  You know that right?  Wolfard does it every single time.  They cheer for him.  Judy, they all actually cheer.  They love it.”

 

“Nick, that interrupts their school day and makes things harder for their teacher.  It’s common courtesy.  Come on.”  She stepped carefully, taking what she felt was a long time to move short distances where there were clearings in traffic on the preferred side street she was travelling between the shorter shops and strip malls.

 

“Oh man, look at that tiny traffic jam.”  Nick motioned ahead as he took another careful step.  Mice slowed where the larger mammals were to help them safely move through the city.  There was no panic when there had been warning that larger mammals would be there.

 

“Let’s just get over there so we can go back to work,” Judy sighed.  Her motions were painstakingly careful.  After getting her tail chewed for her first blunder here, she was as mindful as she could be to interrupt these smaller mammals lives as little as possible.

 

“Rahr… Rahr…”  Nick whispered little roars as he tip-toed through the city.  Judy wanted to scold him for it, but she could only smile.  Little things like that were a large part of what attracted her to him.  The mundane parts of their job where they just had to correct little things turned into fun memories for them because Nick wasn’t so serious unless he really needed to be.

 

While they moved, to them, slowly through the tiny part of the city, their strides were so long that it was faster than most of the tiny mammals on these streets could drive.  Getting to the area where the traffic jam was turned into a bit more of an exercise in balancing, and a couple of times Judy or Nick needed to hold on to the edge of a building to manage it.  

 

“No breaky, no breaky, no breaky…” the fox chanted as he moved along.  Fortunately, nothing broke.  They finally got to the traffic circle.  As advertised, around and around and around the little identical blue cars went, and they were going fast enough it wasn’t safe for the trucks that were stuck waiting for them to enter the traffic circle.  That might not be a problem if the little cars ever left, but they did not.

 

So, what do we do here?” inquired Nick.

 

“Maybe… just pick one of them up?” Judy replied with uncertainty.  The towering vulpine poised himself over the cars.  A lot of them in the traffic jam were honking, and their horns sounded like a kit’s squeaker toy.  “Try not to damage it.  That would save us serious paperwork.”  Nick sucked in a deep breath.  He might have suggested Judy do it instead, but that would have been riskier.  Nick was taller, had larger paws, and it just made more sense.

 

Deftly, elegantly, Nick snatched up the little car.  He did so in a way that lifted it up out of the circle while maintaining its forward motion like a little plane taking off, and he swung it close to him so that as little force was exerted on the little vehicle as possible.

 

“Well done, me,” Nick congratulated himself.  He peered at the petrified, confused driver in the car.  “I’m helping.  Don’t mind me,” he informed, pointed to his badge.  No need for the little mammal to be afraid.  He was obviously a bit dazed.  Looped lemmings were out of it at the point they needed intervention, so that was no surprise.

 

Judy could tell the little mammals still in the traffic circle freaked out a bit at one of the cars being picked up, but the sudden gap in the line of cars made it so the next one took an exit out of the circle and the others followed.  The cycle was broken.  There was a lot of squeaky honking from happy rodents.  Nick placed the remaining car back in the traffic circle.  It made a careful full loop and drove away.  Nick waved and traffic began to flow.  This actually made the walk away from that traffic circle a little more difficult, and the pair took a slightly different route.  

 

After a dozen or so yards, Nick began laughing loudly and inexplicably.  Judy nudged him, giving a flourish to prompt him to tell her what that was about, and the fox pointed at a billboard several blocks away.  

 

It still had the inverted U of Judy’s backside pressed in black mud upon it.  They hadn’t bothered to clean it!  Judy’s posterior had been effectively advertised on the pawn-shop side of town for a whole year?!  Oh, that was just unacceptable!  Nick actually  had to stop because he couldn’t keep tiptoeing through the city.  He was laughing too hard.  This commotion caught the attention of a few rodents but their point of view didn’t let them see the billboard, so they had no idea what it was about.  They mostly went about their business to give the officers more space to allow them to exit their part of Zootopia so everyone could go off of alert.

 

Whatever.  At least her fox was being cheerful again.

 

 

*************

 

 

The end of their day was a welcome thing to the fox and bunny.  It had been a long one, and the cases were just weird.  Most of what their job entailed was filing accident reports, dealing with petty crime, and handling safety issues.  Today had been entirely different.  

 

The skunk issue was a bit off, but the traffic circle thing was just odd.  After that, they dealt with a missing mammal report that ended up being a little beaver girl’s __imaginary friend__ , but there was actually a __crime__ that had been committed that was linked to that.  The name that the parents of the girl provided was the same that had been making purchases fraudulently all over the city.  The seven-year-old girl had no idea, of course, and was clearly not involved, but because Nick and Judy’s involvement meant they were looking for the person, Nick discovered that the big sister of one of the girl’s school mates had heard and adopted the seemingly random name.  They had to arrest an 18 year old otter who had been babysitting the beaver for credit fraud.

 

The crime had been solved, but fell into the same category as bizarre with other calls for the day.  This was the topic as they took the bus home.

 

“It’s Tora.  It has to be,” Nick grumbled as he held a bar to remain standing as his bunny occupied one of the only open seats.  “I’m sure weird cases pop up now and again for any officer, but I bet she’s told Clawhauser to send all of them to us.  She’s messing with me.”

 

“Why would she do that, Nick?” Judy asked, a little distressed that he was being paranoid.  That was never a good direction for an officer to go.

 

“She looked up the coin.  I dunno.  She knows I am gonna try to get her, and she’s gonna say she got me first.  Foxes do that.  Preemptive gettings.”

 

“She’s busy all day, Nick.  I would think she has better things to do with her time,” Judy stated.  “She’s not made any obvious attempt to just put us on parking duty or anything like that.”  Honestly, the bunny’s interaction with Tora, while terse, had been pretty positive.  She treated Judy more like a cop than Bogo did at first.  Nick wasn’t party to that one-sided disaster.

 

“An imaginary friend case?  Really Judy?” Nick arched a brow.

 

“Well, the lemming thing was __not__ a weird case… at least in terms of who should have dealt with it.  We are literally the best mammals on the force to deal with something like that.”  They were the smallest and a go-to pair for dealing with an issue in Little Rodentia, despite the bunny’s early slip-up there.

 

“I’m not saying it’s an absolute, I just want you to pay attention to patterns is all.  We might be getting a bit of blow-back from the intended getting.”

 

“You know what, Nick?  We’d deserve it.  So far, that tiger’s done fine in keeping things together for our department.  She’s not doing bad.  She made a  poor call, maybe, on how to deal with us on day one, but she’s not made our jobs any harder since.  It could have been ugly, and it’s really not been.”

 

“The getting is still happening,” her fox stated as they reached their stop.

 

“... And I won’t challenge that, even now… but I __will__ say that our weird run of cases has nothing to do with Tora,” Judy announced as she hopped off the bottom step and began the two block walk to their apartment.  There was still a bit of chill in the air.

 

“You almost sound as if you like Mayumi,” Nick scoffed.

 

“I can respect her position is all… and don’t assume that since I respect her that I’ve ignored the fact that she insists on calling me Officer Hopps in the morning briefings.”

 

“Yeah.  Did you see Francine twitch at it this morning?  It’s even getting to her, and she hates me!”

 

“Francine doesn’t hate you, Nick.  She’s not even still mad about the squeak prank.”

 

“It wasn’t even for her!  It was aimed at Higgins!” Nick flailed a bit as he caught up.  The one they were talking about happened after Nick had been on the force for only a month or so.  It was one of two that were considered ‘a miss’ by the precinct, and was the prank responsible for the still-current rule that the first officer who laughed at a fox-prank ended up with parking duty.

 

“You were talking to Francine, though, not Higgins!  Of course she thought it was directed at her.”  He’d told her they had a guest speaker from the Micro College in Little Rodentia.  Then, like… a minute later Higgins stepped on a squeaker the fox planted under the rug by the podium.  It didn’t matter if it was supposed to be for Higgins at that point.

 

“I bought everyone lunch to apologize, I didn’t realize how terrified Francine was of that specific scenario.  You know I wouldn’t have…”  Nick sounded less defensive and more crestfallen at that.  There was a reason he just assumed that the elephant hated him now.  He’d made amends and everyone was fine with it, but he had earned his bit of uneasiness around the pachyderm.  “Anyway… even she doesn’t think it’s cute anymore.”

 

“And she may just be doing it because it’s harder to give out assignments when there’s two officers with the same name.”  Judy had to admit that it sounded like she was defending the tigress.  That really wasn’t the case.

 

“Are you able to say anything negative about her at this point?”  The tone was strangely accusatory.  Judy stiffened up.  Nick was feeling isolated.  

 

“Of course, Nick.  While she might not be directly doing anything to us, I can’t possibly ignore the one thing she hasn’t done to us.”

 

“That is?” he pondered as they walked up the steps to their apartment building.

 

“She hasn’t given a single word of encouragement, support, or recognition for anything we’ve done in the whole time we’ve been back, active or administrative.”  Nick put his ears back.  Had he not even noticed that?  Judy felt a hollowness in her stomach.  Oh, right.  Fox.  “Heck, this morning she congratulated ‘Team Delgato’ for an 88 percent case-resolution for last week.  You know what ours was for the end of our very first week back on active patrol?”

 

“Higher?” Nick guessed.  He didn’t pay attention to the metrics and numbers.  He never did.  He felt they were distracting.  Every case deserved all they could do to solve it, and the numbers just didn’t matter.

 

“94 percent, Nick.  We had the fewest cases outstanding.  And you know that’s not really far above our general average.  We do good work and she … seems unwilling to recognize it in front of anyone.”

 

“Hey.”  The voice caught Judy off guard as they walked into the lobby of their apartment.  She glanced downward because of the familiar deepness of it.  

 

Finnick stood before them with a tiny backpack over his shoulder.

 

“Hey, big guy!” Nick barked.  “Goin’ camping?”

 

The fennec rolled his eyes at the ‘big guy’ nickname.  He answered gruffly, “Heating coil in the van snapped,” he informed.  “Gotta wait till pay-day next week to order the replacement.  She’s gettin’ old, Nick.  Parts are hard to find and stupid-expensive.”  Judy cringed at that.  Even in the warmer sections of the city it was pretty cold this time of year, and a fennec was __not__  made for the cold.

 

“Oh?  Where you heading?” Judy pried.

 

“You shoulda texted me,” Nick expressed in an even tone.  “I’d have swung by earlier to let you in so you weren’t just hanging around in the lobby here.”  The bunny dropped her ears back, little paw moving to her muzzle.  Wait.  They had to discuss things like this.  Finnick and Nick got onto the elevator.

 

“Where’s he supposed to stay, Nick?  It’s a one bed-room apartment.

 

“We’ll consolidate the cookware into one cabinet instead of two,” Nick answered.

 

“You are not gonna Hairy Otter me, Nick!  I know all your embarrassing drunk stories.”

 

“Right.  In bed with us then,” her mate corrected.  Judy nearly tripped getting onto the elevator.

 

“No!” she protested with a bit of a squeak.  Finnick burst out laughing as the elevator doors closed.

 

“Calm down, Bunnycop,” the smallest of their immediate friends comforted with a grin.  “Imma be on the couch.  And I won’t even be there all the time, I got evenin’s at the radio station.  I’ll get my sleep when ya’ll are out makin’ stories for Shaky to report on.  Though, y’ stuck with me for tonight, I’m off!” he laughed.  Judy nodded slowly.  Okay, so that would not be the huge interruption of their lives that she initially thought it would.  The bunny had been so eager to have things get mostly back to normal and the last thing she wanted was another issue to come up and derail their lives.

 

“Just… Can we talk about these things and not have you just show up with a backpack?” she bargained, more to excuse her initial reaction.  She didn’t want Finnick to think she didn’t like him, even if he could be pretty rude and foul with a bit of drink in him.

 

“Nope.  Standin’ offer.  Fox promise,” the little fennec informed.

 

“Oh, really?” she asked, glaring at Nick.  “Any other fox promises I should know about?”

 

“Nothin’ big,” Nick hastily answered, giving that panicked sort of grin that told Judy she might need to be on her toes.

 

“Yeah, he nullified the one he made to Frost when he vowed up to you,” the littlest fox stated as he got off the elevator.

 

“Uh... what?” the doe bluntly responded.

 

“That wasn’t a real promise, and you know it,” Nick grumbled to his little friend.  He got off with Judy darting quickly behind.

 

“What promise?!” the doe snapped.  There was no way that her mate had been in a relationship with the other fox, they hated each other when she met Skye!

 

Nick sighed.  “Carrots, it was verbal banter.  She asked me when I’d find a good vixen to keep me in line so I would stop making foxes look bad, and I promised her that if there were no other vixens left in Zootopia it could be her.  I was provoking her the way I always did.”

 

“Naw man, you said fox-promise,” Finnick pushed.  Judy cocked an eyebrow.  Was he trying to get Nick in trouble?

 

“I contained a dangerous amount of cider.  Fin, I was on my back when I said that because you were literally dragging me by my tail through the lobby to the elevator.”  Judy had to actually stifle a laugh at that image as it seared itself into her mind.  They arrived at the apartment and Nick let everyone in.  

 

“See?  Mi casa, es su casa.”  He gestured flamboyantly to the whole simple, charming abode of the fox and bunny.

 

“What was the original promise, so I know?” Judy requested, still a little unnerved by that unexpected bit of her husband’s history.

 

“Either of us fall on hard times, they can count on the other,” Nick explained.

 

“That doesn’t sound like the kind of promise the fox you used to be would easily make,” Judy pointed out with a level of seriousness in her voice.

 

Nick put his bag down and got a soda from the fridge, as well as a cider for Finnick.  The bunny’s mate looked a little sad for a moment, not locking eyes with her.  “Yeah, well… He helped me through a really rough patch where I didn’t really care about much and I was doing a bunch of dumb things that coulda… made it so we never met.”  

 

“I kept yo ass out of the ice-pond is what I did,” snapped the little fennec.  Judy felt a wave of bitter cold slip through her.  Something Vivienne had told her came back fresh in her mind.  Nick was so lost at one point that he recklessly provoked a dangerous crime boss.  He didn’t care.  He absolutely didn’t care if anything happened to him at that point.  He was basically off the rails and careening toward oblivion back then.

 

The self-loathing, shamed, unhappy fox had no one back then to stop him from doing what he was doing.  Nick’s mother couldn’t be there for him back then.  He wouldn’t let her close to him.  The little mammal now in their apartment was the one who stood by him during that.  Judy stared at the little fox as he sipped his cider, feeling suddenly very different about him.  Nick made light of their friendship because Finnick insisted on his tough-guy image, but he had been Nick’s friend when no one else in the city seemed to care about him.

 

Okay, that promise, and her understanding of the arrangement, were both deserved.  She would drop any reservation she had about it.  If the little fox needed a place, this would always be it.  Nick was not aware that Judy had been told how bad it was, and she didn’t feel like bringing it up then.  She would let it go.

 

“Movie night then?” Nick offered.

 

“No pizza,” Finnick deadpanned.

 

“Noodles?” the bunny attempted.  She understood the smaller mammal’s immediate response.  Nick liked to order pizza for movie night and Fin just wanted anything  but that.

 

The tiny tan fox grinned.  “Hell yeah!”

 

 

 

 *************

 

 

 

The selected fare for movie night was an action flick about a kung-fu trained tiger who was supposed to be taking care of some cubs but kept getting inexplicably attacked by mammals from their past.  It was cheeky and silly, but Finnick was clearly content with it.  He liked cheesy 80’s movies.

 

It was not really unlike a lot of their evenings before a day off, but the next day was a work day, so ultimately Nick confessed it was time for bed, and headed to the shower to get cleaned up.  That left Judy waiting on her shower.  She didn’t mind taking it with Nick, but the fox had to move around quite a bit in the small shower to clean his tail and the like, and the small bunny almost always got bonked on the nose or unintentionally mashed into the wall, and it was honestly just easier in general to shower separately.

 

As she heard the hiss of the shower, she gazed at their small temporary roommate.  He finished off his cider happily, and was quite happy to be in a heated apartment, not worried about his head-sails freezing and snapping off in the night, as he had vividly described.

 

“Thanks, Finnick…” Judy finally murmured. Through the whole movie she had been feeling heavily reflective.  

 

“Fo’ what?” he asked, huge ears attentive.

 

“Helping Nick.  Back before I met him,” she replied.

 

“He was my work partner.  Didn’t feel like replacin’ him.  We had a good gimmick goin’.”  Judy let her ears slowly fall back. He was deflecting.  Nick did that a lot too, early on.

 

“What did you do to keep him from getting killed for the skunk butt rug thing?” the bunny whispered.  That was the thing she latched on to.  Nick could have been killed.  She didn’t know why he wasn’t.  Vivienne made it clear he should have.  Something interfered and with Nick having given a very uncharacteristic promise in his past, she suddenly suspected she knew what had happened.  She just wanted to know.

 

“What makes you think that was me, bunny?” asked the smaller mammal.

 

“I know what it would have taken for the old Nick to make that kind of promise to someone.  Don’t try to deny this Finnick.  I need to know what happened.  The real story.”

 

“No, ya don’t.  That wasn’t a good look for Nick.  Not then.  It was bad.  You don’t know how bad.”

 

“He… wanted it all to end,” Judy delivered with a weight in her heart and on her voice.

 

“Ooookay… So you know how bad then,” Finnick stared at her a moment, then back to the bathroom.  He was, most likely, judging how long he had to talk about it.  Nick took forever to groom his wonderful tail.  He had time.

 

“Please,” Judy pressed.

 

“Okay… so… look bunny...”  The little mammal pulled his ears back nervously.  “I ain’t supposed to talk about this, right?  It was like.. five years ago, maybe four… Don’t matter.  He got the Internet finally, and was looking up funny things, new jokes to tell people.  Maybe you don’t know, but he uses humor to distract mammals… take them off their guard.”

 

“I know,” Judy admitted.

 

“Well, he found some pretty vile crap on there.  ‘25 Foxes Who Had It Comin’’ or somthin’ like that.  Bunch o’ crap about completely worthless foxes gettin’ run over, flattened, gibbed, burned… There was even a Flash game where you had to try to pull a muzzle onto a little cartoony fox who was bouncin’ around all over the place, just plain freakin’ out.  That whole site got taken down in like… days… But not before it put Nick in a serious funk.  Like… he gave me his laptop and told me to do whatever I wanted with it.”  Judy felt ill.  Of course that bothered Nick.  That was terrible.

 

“The Internet… is an easy place to be awful.  I wish Nick would not have let that get to him.  He didn’t need to.  Some mammals just… Yuk…”  She shook her head.  Poor fox.

 

“Hey, it wuzzn’t just foxes, it was just all kinds of hate there.  Sheer a sheep with throwing knives, cow tippin’, send explodin’ fish after otters… the whole site was just dedicated to cruel games like it was dark-funny or some shit.”  Judy did not want to give an inch to the notion that such a thing was supposed to be funny.  

 

“Not amusing,” she clarified.  

 

“Yeah, well, Nick got into funks sometimes, but it was like he suddenly used that crappy website as his full on measuring stick for society.  And he just went off the damned chart.  He took big risks because he figured existence was completely meaningless.  It was all a slow burn until the end and he would just have whatever comforts he could.  I knew he was makin’ mistakes but I didn’t know how bad till a couple’a bears showed up and freaking tipped my van over.  

 

“Kevin and Raymond?” qualified Judy.

 

“And two others.  It was serious,” Finnick replied.  “I don’t know that Nick ever told you the rules to hustlin’, but there’s two really big ones.  You don’t make friends, and you don’t make enemies.  And Nick made a really dangerous enemy doin’ somethin’ he knew wouldn’t work.  His plan?  Take the money and leave.  He was gonna go live in Fenrir or something.  

 

But they couldn’t get him, so they went after the only mammal they thought was his friend.  I messed up.  I coulda just said I didn’t know him outside of our hustles but I said I wasn’t tellin’ them anything.  They dragged me out to Tundra Town and used me as bait to get Nick out there.”

 

“And Nick came?” asked the doe.

 

“Yeah, he did.  I thought it was because he didn’t wanna see me hurt, you know?  But it wasn’t like that.  Not to him.  Yeah, he wanted them to let me go, but he just didn’t care, at that point.  He was toxic.  Time to go, he told everyone.”  Judy swallowed hard.  She understood, from her discussion with Vivienne, that he was like that back then, but to hear how close it came was painful.

 

Judy held her breath a moment, then whispered, “How in the world did he get out of that?”

 

“I realized as they moved the cover off the floor and Nick just looked at it like it was an empty freakin’ beer that he wuzzn’t gonna fight it.  And I had enough.  I broke my own rule about not makin’ friends.  He mighta been a goof and a nut sometimes, but he was the only mammal who ain’t once done me wrong.  I knew what he was goin’ through.  I watched what he was doin’ and I wanted to stay out of it. I let it get that far and I had to stop it.  I told Big I wanted to make a deal.  I explained that Nick wasn’t… healthy right then.  I needed to get Nick straight in the head.  Big said he’d let my buddy go if I worked for him and his goons for a year.”

 

“As a police officer, knowing that the statute of limitations has probably not worn off, I would like to encourage you not to share about that part,” Judy murmured softly.

 

“You watch too much TV, Bunnycop,” Finnick stated.  “I did legitimate work.  But it was hard and I didn’t get paid, and I still needed to hustle with Nick to make a livin’ on top of that, so that whole year sucked.  But seein’ me do that brought him out of his funk.  He used __that__ to measure the city instead, he said. But, my van got impounded one time cause it was parked illegally, and I didn’t have the cash to get it.  That’s when Nick made the promise.  And he’s always kept it.”

 

“Now can I thank you?” Judy asked.  She had never really heard Finnick be so candid aside from when he was drunk and promised to go legit after Nick was lost under the city.  She was glad to have gotten to really talk to him.

 

“Yeah, whatever,” the fennec dismissed and then grunted as he got scooped up by the bunny and hugged.

 

“Thank you, Finnick,” Judy whispered, putting him back down.

 

“Kin I thank __you__ , now?” the little fox queried.  For some reason that kicked Judy’s heart right up into her throat.  She slowly nodded, fighting not to blink just to keep her wide bunny eyes dry.

 

“S-sure,” she whispered.

 

“I can’t even describe what you’ve done for Nick.  He’s not the same fox he was, and you know… I ain’t the same fox I was.  I don’t have lots, but I don’t need more.  I worked at the restaurant for a while, then a got a pretty sweet gig at the radio station, and they said they might even let me start doin’ mornin’ reports.  I might actually end up __bein’__ someone in this crazy animal city,” he chuckled.  “If Nick could do it, why not me, y’know?  You was helpin’ Nick cause you love him, and you __know__ you help him, but maybe you don’t always see what happens when other mammals see what you did.  He ain’t the only one you helped, and I promise I ain’t the only mammal besides him that was watchin’.  So thanks fo’ that, Judy.”  The bunny’s breath hitched.  For as rare as it had been originally that Nick used her real name, Finnick used it even less.  And he was really genuine in this heartfelt gratitude.

 

“I’m glad it helped.  Nick.. you… I’m glad,” the bunny sniffed.

 

“Oh, hey, don’t do that.  Nick comes out and you cryin’ he’ll drop me off the balcony!” the little fox laughed.  Judy hugged him again.

 

“Tight… too tight!” he grunted.

 

“Take your hug gracefully, Fin!” Judy sputtered, half laughing, half crying.

 

“Why do bunnies keep pickin’ me up!?”

 

“Oh, you didn’t have a problem when my mom did it while you were pretending to be my son!” the doe laughed, getting her emotions under control.

 

“Yeah, well you as padded as a dime-store mannequin, bunny!  Yo’ ma’s pure bunny-snuggle heaven!  She pick me up and I never wanna be put down!”  He grinned at her.

 

“Finnick!” shouted the bunny indignantly.  “I’ll take you to the balcony myself!”

 

There was laughter from the shower.


	3. Lunch

 

**Guardian Blue: Season Three**

_ Episode 3:   _ _ Lunch _

__

 

“So, how’s it going with our vulpine coworker?” asked one Fangmeyer.

 

“And don’t just say ‘oh, alright’.” said the other.  The two tigers had lunch together frequently at the precinct.  They caught Judy as Nick went to fill out requisition forms for supplies they needed for their cruiser.  This left his partner more vulnerable to her curious coworkers in the cafeteria after their briefing for the day.  The two smaller mammals were on the second shift rotation for that quarter, so they arrived when morning officers were taking their meal or preparing to leave, depending on shift length.

 

The scent of fish-burger hung on the air, and Judy tried to ignore that as Hector, the male of the pair, leaned in closer as well, tartar sauce on his breath.

 

“You’ve been tight-lipped… So, we’ve been patient.  But, we gotta know… is it everything you imagined?” he asked.

 

“I have to figure there’s quarrels…” Felicia Fangmeyer elaborated.  “I mean, you two argue at work, so home must be the same.”

 

“We don’t argue at work,” Judy protested.  Did it really seem that way?  They were just comfortable enough to know that one would not upset the other with a difference of opinion.  She decided to throw something obvious for them to placate their curiosity.  “Well, I have to keep him focused.  And that’s a good thing.  And… sometimes he has to soften my approach to things.  Our differences compliment one another.  It’s not really what I would call friction.”

 

“Things are okay then?  You’re… happy?” asked Hector.  “It was so sudden.  Everyone was surprised.”

 

Judy looked blankly at both tigers.  They thought she… wasn’t happy?  They thought she was hiding not being happy?  Why?

 

She took a slow, deep breath.  How to explain?  “Do I look unhappy?” she asked.  This was something she needed to know.

 

It was hector who immediately answered.  “What?  No.  I mean, not really but… you two are so different, right?  I mean, not just species.  Your personalities.  Don’t think we don’t know who Nick was before you met him.  He’s been on the radar before.  And you are all ‘hard rules and responsibility’.  It just…  I mean…  It seemed…”

 

“Like it couldn’t possibly work?” Judy asked with a smile.  It was alright for her friends to worry about them.  They wouldn’t be great friends if they didn’t.  Judy’s happiness mattered.  Nick’s happiness mattered.  They cared.

 

“Yeah,” offered Felicia, sagging a bit.  She didn’t appear to like the connotation they had just made.

 

“It’s okay, you guys.  So… your question is mostly about whether I am happy now that I am Judy Wilde?” she asked.

 

“Right.” answered the male of the pair.  It was fair of them to ask.  

 

The bunny pondered how best to explain it to her caring coworkers.  No one had, so far, built up the courage to ask this closely about it.  They kept their distance from the subject.  That made sense if everyone was thinking it was a mistake.

 

Judy finally decided on a direction with which to approach it.  “So… a fox swearing himself to me means I could do whatever I wanted with him,” she explained.  “Nick did this.  And when I say anything, I mean that before I made any decision to marry him, Nick was willing to spend his entire life making me happy… even if I married someone else.  I could have, if I wanted, lived my life like any other bunny.  I could have raised a huge family, dedicated myself to another, and Nick would have pulled carrots out of the ground, taken care of my kits, all of it.  He vowed himself to me without knowing if I would ever do the same for him.  He chose, for his existence, to bring me happiness.  Nothing else.  Not a cop.  Not a fox.  Not his own life at all.  My happiness.  My joy.  He’s one hundred percent mine.”

 

“Oh… goodness…” Felicia murmured, making it clear the depth of old fox traditions were not well known to her.

 

“However,” the doe elaborated, “He’d not have given himself to someone he assumed would ever mistreat him.  He trusted me with his… everything.  It’s not about what I gained when he vowed up… not to me.  It’s a much bigger deal that I remind him as often as I can that I know he trusts me completely, and I live up to that trust.  I have to be honest with Nick.  That means you will see us disagree.  It’s not abrasive.  It’s healthy.  Nick mentioned it to me once, and it kinda stuck.  So many friends and couples opt out of speaking up on little differences.  It’s because they don’t want to disagree with their partner, and they end up going through life without their partner ever  _really_ knowing them… not as well as they could.”

 

Both tigers stared at her, transfixed.  The bunny had thought a lot about how much Nick gave her, even in those first days.  She had spoken with Viv a few times  _after_ marrying her partner about what the vows he took, before she decided, had meant, and it was a really heavy burden to place on oneself for someone they loved.  Nick selflessly did that.  The bunny would never forget, and she felt her coworkers would benefit from knowing what her fox willingly sacrificed before she decided to take his last name too.

 

“I… I had no idea,” responded Hector.

 

“What if you didn’t want him?” asked his wife.  Judy wilted a little.  They were fixating on the wrong part.  Still, Vivienne had said that sort of thing happened.

 

“He could never promise himself to another,” the bunny responded.  The two tiger officers glanced at one another and them both smiled, sitting just a little bit closer together.

 

“And to think, they say romance is dead,” Felicia chuckled.

 

“Does he bite?” Hector asked.

 

“Hey!” his mate gasped.

 

“Oh yeah,” Judy responded, nodding.  She didn’t mind that question.  It felt like all of her sisters had already asked it.

 

“Was it scary at first?” The male tiger asked.

 

“Oh my God…” Felicia groaned, covering her face.

 

The bunny grinned.  “You guys have seen video of the first time I felt his teeth.  I have  _never_  been afraid of them.”  The pair looked to one another, before both lighting up with realization.

 

“Man, this train’s been on the rails the whole time, huh?” asked Hector.

 

“Feels like it,” the doe replied.

 

“Officer Hopps?”  The voice spoke up from behind her.  She turned to see another tiger standing there.

 

“Oh!  Afternoon, Chief Tora!” Judy chimed with a decidedly over-use of enthusiasm.

 

“May I eat with you, and chat a moment?” she asked.  Judy tried to hide her surprise.

 

“Sure!  Sure!”  She scooted a little, but realized that wasn’t needed.  She was not sharing a large-mammal chair with Nick, after all.  Tora sat across from her.  The bunny remained standing in her chair while the other two tigers hastily departed.  It left the bunny uncomfortable.  Surely, if she was going to get her tuft chewed about something, it would be done in a more private locale.

 

Tora sat casually and took out a little tray from her blue zippable lunch bag.  She opened it and revealed a meal Judy had seen on TV quite a few times but not up close.  Sushi.  The scent of fish was far more potent than the fried food that the Fangmeyers were enjoying.  It was a little overpowering, but there were some nice scents with it.  Pickles, rice, cucumber, tomato, and other things.  The little tightly compacted balls of rice were also kind of pretty.

 

The tigress munched on them quietly a moment, and left the doe feeling rather awkward.  The bunny decided that she should be the one to start a conversation.  Tora would not have asked to sit with her if she didn’t want to discuss something.

 

“So… Do you make your own lunch, or is this from a shop?” she asked.  It was the only thing she could think of to say.

 

“It’s from a shop,” answered her stand-in chief in a friendly tone.

 

The bunny felt awkward talking about the Chief’s lunch, but she understood that Tora respected cultural curiosity, so she pressed on.  “I’ve not seen sushi up close before.  When you hear mammals talk about it, you expect it to be… this simple thing with fish… but it looks as complicated as baking, honestly.  There’s more to it.”  She wanted to make it clear that she was not offended by the meal.  Some bunnies might be.  

 

“It’s not like the sushi where I am from,” stated the tigress in a casual tone.  “They try to make it taste like so many other things here.  It really  _should_ be more simple.  There’s no reason it can’t be.  I like it like those on this side… a little fish on a fluffy cloud of rice, maybe with a tart little pickle.  It needs nothing else.”  She nodded.

 

“It seems like it’s pretty tasty just like I see it there.  It has lots of things I enjoy.”  She indicated the one that had slivers of cucumber and little cubes of tomato.  “Maybe they make it more complicated to attract a wider variety of mammals to try them?”

 

“Would you like one?” Tora asked.

 

“No thanks,” Judy lied.  She might well have tried one, but felt it best to not let  _that_ personal curiosity out to the general public.

 

“Does your partner hate me, Officer Hopps?” inquired the Chief.

 

A wave of anxiousness flooded the bunny.  She had to consciously keep her nose from wiggling.  She did not want to talk about this.  Judy answered carefully.  “He hates that you do not refer to me by my married name.  Surely you don’t think this is still some kind of hoax.”

 

“I don’t think that, no,” she replied slowly.  “I know now that you’re a couple.  However, I will  _not_ call you both Wilde because this is confusing… There are two Wildes.  For orders and reporting, you will still be Hopps.  It’s not personal.  And before you say it… to call you merely by your first names is unprofessional because I do not do this with the other officers.”  Judy looked away.  She had, of course, suspected that the use of her maiden name was all about avoiding confusion, but for Tora to absolutely  _never_ use her married name had been insulting.  Other officers had even commented to her as such.

 

“Our first meeting could have gone better,” Judy sighed, having suspected that might have had something to do with it.  It was too late to stop the getting, so she didn’t know why she was attempting damage control.

 

“It was he who assumed negatively of me.  I do not wish to place you so recklessly in harms way.  How should this offend you?  The ZPD picks up the bill for both of your work related injuries.  Are you aware that this has surpassed your salaries since you have begun working for the ZPD?”  The lady chief arched a brow.

 

“It’s been an unlucky start, sure, but it’s not like they were trying to put us in those situations.  We were just there, same as any officer,” the doe explained.

 

“I did not have any negative assessment for your partner,” Tora returned curtly.

 

“I will convey that message,” Judy responded professionally.

 

“I do. However, have some pretty strong reservations about you.”  The line was delivered very nonchalantly.  Judy tensed up.  

 

What?  What did she just say to her?  Was that even allowed?  Could she actually openly show that kind of bias?  The bunny thought hard about whatever this actually meant, feeling immediately sick.  She could understand Tora having an issue with Nick, with all the fox’s wise-cracks and known unprofessional behavior in the bullpen.  But… what problem could she have with the straight-laced bunny cop?  What reason could she possibly have?

 

“I… Wh-why?” stammered the doe, finally getting something out.

 

“Are you serious?” asked the chief.  Judy’s ears fell back in agitation.

 

“Are you serious about personal bias toward an officer?” Judy asked.

 

“It’s not personal.  It’s professional,” Tora responded bluntly.

 

“What’s the issue?” Judy asked.  “Being professional would be just talking to me about it, not having all these ‘reservations’ and not letting me improve myself or whatever.”  She needed Nick.  She needed her partner.  She needed to not be alone with this apparently spiteful tiger.

 

Tora took a bite of her food as she watched the young doe through lazy eyes.  “You and Nick are great cops.  Don’t think I have this problem with your  _work_.  I’ve been watching.   _Together_ , you can manage pretty much anything.  But you, Judy Hopps, on your own, are a substandard field officer at  _best_.”

 

“What?!” exclaimed the bunny, then tamped down her anger.  She had to be professional.  “I graduated top of my class.  I have an impeccable record.  Nick and I have a higher investigative success rate than half the actual  _detectives_ on the force.  How is that substandard, Tora?”

 

“You forgot to say chief,” the tiger growled.

 

“There  _are_ two chiefs!  I wouldn’t want there to be any  _confusion_!” Judy literally shouted.

 

“Oh, Hell no…”  Wolfard’s voice sounded just barely at the entrance to the cafeteria.  When Judy looked in that direction, he was already gone.  No lupine assistance for the bunny.

 

“This is why you’re substandard, Officer Hopps,” stated the tiger.  “You’re emotional.  You’re reckless.  You don’t care about the consequences of going toe to toe with mammals ten times your weight.  You don’t rely on other officers enough.  You feel the need to prove yourself to everyone - that you can do what they do, and you  _can’t_.”  Judy glared at Tora.  That sounded painfully familiar, but she dismissed it.  She had already proven herself to the force.  She suddenly felt no need to prove herself to the interim chief.  The tigress took advantage of the silence to continue.  “You are still only a bunny, however well trained and well intentioned.  I spent a few days carefully reviewing your record and I see evidence of your recklessness and bravado from day one… and it’s not abated even after both you and Officer Wilde nearly died on separate incidents.  That’s usually enough to breed some caution into an officer, but not for you, oh no.”

 

“Don’t smear my selflessness and Nick’s sacrifice as some kind of  _flaw_ , Tora,” growled Judy, actually a little surprised at the deepness of her own voice.  She had not intended it to sound so threatening.

 

“I’m gonna be frank, Officer Hopps…”  The tiger took another bite.  “I actually really like Wilde.  He’s a splendid sample of what foxes are.  Other foxes in the city look up to him.  We have a few taking preliminary courses to join the academy.  He’s a good example for them.”

 

“And I’m  _not_ a good example for bunnies - is that it?” Judy pressed.

 

The interim chief gestured a bit.  “Oh, you’re a perfectly fine example for all the bunnies who feel the need to chuck themselves into a wood-chipper to make a name for themselves, sure.  Hopps, the rabbits who are attempting to join the ZPD, and there have been several, all have one thing in common.  They think that you were specifically trained to beat the hell out of that bear they saw you drop on TV.  They think that they  _all_ will be able to do that with a simple fighting course.”

 

“Yeah, well, it’s not like I could fight like that at the beginning…”

 

“You were willing to, however,” the Chief stated.

 

“And they’re not?” asked the doe.

 

Tora sighed deeply.  “Most just stand there with their noses wiggling as the huge pillowy glove comes down on them.  Eight out of the eleven lapine candidates who have attempted to join the ZPD ended their journey in the practice ring.  It’s not about the type of animal, Officer Hopps.  It’s about the type of bunny.  Despite your perfectly acceptable marks for an  _officer_ in your now multiple psychological evaluations, you’d have not passed for a bunny… The reason you were capable of going through the academy is not because you were an exceptional rabbit, Officer Hopps.  It’s because you are barely a rabbit at all.”

 

The bunny narrowed her eyes at the tiger.

 

“I don’t understand…” she grumbled genuinely.

 

“Do you like me, Officer Hopps?” asked Chief Tora.

 

“No,” Judy answered.

 

“Do you respect me as your commanding officer?” the tiger pressed.

 

“Yes.  Your contributions to the department have nothing to do with my problem with you.”

 

“Well, our issue is the opposite.  I respect you as a mammal, Judy Hopps,” she waved a bit dismissively.  “But, I do not as an officer.  That’s our disconnect.”

 

“You are misunderstanding everything about me,” growled the bunny.  “Your entire view of me is flawed.  You base it on the ideal bunny.  I am not here to be the ideal bunny.  I’m here to make the city better.  Safer.  I’m here to help other mammals.”

 

“I think that you take the risks that you do to hide the fact that you are terrified of your job, and all the things that you find you have to do,” Tora stated evenly, “… but not nearly as terrified as you are of letting anyone know it.  Your bravado is artificial.  It’s there to convince you.  Not anyone else.”

 

“What?” Judy deadpanned.

 

“Almost every other rabbit freezes up in terror when it comes to fighting something with claws and fangs.  But you don’t.  And I think that it’s because you have crafted this Judy Hopps persona in your head where you are invincible as long as you give it everything you’ve got.  You’ve been  _lucky_ so far.  You’ve either had the good fortune of other officers arriving just in time, or you’ve only dealt with mammals who were wildly flailing and had never actually been trained to fight.  But that luck will run out.”

 

“It runs out for everyone,” the doe murmured.  “I don’t just fight whenever I feel like it.  If you read my record, you’d know that.  We deescalate all the time.  And if I have to fight someone who is trained to fight, I just have to do my best, like any other officer.”  The doe placed a paw over her chest where the still-tender line of her healing injury was now mostly hidden by fur.

 

“Yes, but you don’t run.  Ever.”  Tora crossed her strong arms as she said that.

 

“It’s not my job to run away from conflict, Tora,” the bunny grumbled.

 

“I’ve run from a gang of mammals before.  Car parts smuggling investigation went sour.  I was twice the size of some of those mammals.  You’re  _allowed_  to run from unacceptable risk.”

 

“So wait… I’m having trouble following you…”  Judy ran a paw down her face in frustration.  She looked back up.  “You originally had issue with my partner and I over the fact that we were smaller and couldn’t do what other officers do.  Now you want us not to even  _try_?  So we can fit into your narrative?”

 

“I meant what I said, Judy.  I like Officer Wilde.  I do not want to watch… what seeing you ripped in half by a psychopath will inevitably do to him.  He doesn’t deserve that.”

 

“Don’t make this about Nick,” Judy growled.  “You still can’t get it through your head that I made it through the academy and I  _can_ do this job as well as you can.”

 

“Are you so sure of that Hopps?  Do you want to, say… take it into the ring?  No holds barred against a trained fighter?”

 

The bunny tensed up heavily.  Was this some kind of trick?  Dupe her into giving the wrong answer?  Point out some other critical flaw?

 

Judy shook her head.  “What would that prove?” the bunny asked.

 

“That you are vulnerable, of course.  Something you don’t seem to realistically grasp.”

 

“Wait, you want to take me into the ring and beat me to prove I can be beaten?  I’ve lost in the ring with other officers before.”  The doe almost wanted to laugh at that.  How could her commanding officer be this wrong?

 

The Chief took another bite of her strongly fish-scented repast.  “You haven’t fought them with the understanding that it was anything other than sparring.  I would have you fight me the way you would an actual assailant.  You will be in duty uniform, duty gear, and you would have the understanding that if I touch you with my paws, being a tiger… that it actually represents the worst day ever for your husband.”

 

Judy stared at the tiger, mind racing.  She had little to prove by fighting the chief that she hadn’t already proven in the field.  It was a chance for a very highly trained fighter to humiliate her in front of other officers, but Tora seemed to think that humility was Judy’s problem.  Maybe if the bunny agreed to face her, she would lay off.  She gazed down a moment, deep in thought.

 

“Reservations about fighting a tiger?  You won’t die.  But I promise, it will hurt.”  Tora grinned.  The bunny snapped her attention up to the Chief.

 

“Which is your favorite?” asked the doe.

 

“What?” returned the tiger.

 

“Which of the sushi do you like the best?”

 

“Well… I like these…”  She indicated what appeared to be a simple cube of rice with a splayed out bit of some kind of pink fish on it.  “It’s Nigiri.  I always save them for very last.  Good things are worth waiting for.  As I mentioned, I like the simple ones the best.  This is elegant and showcases the - …”

 

Judy popped it into her mouth.  Stunned, jaw agape, Tora could only watch.  It wasn’t bad, but the bunny actually preferred the added textures and spices that she’d had before with other fish.  This pink thing was somewhat oily and a bit bland to her.  Still, well chewed and down it went.

 

Finished with that task, she regarded her Chief with a cold stare.  “You state the time and place.”

 

“Why… did you do that, bunny?” asked the large white feline.  While Judy decided she did not like sushi, she found that expression on Tora to be utterly delicious.

 

“So that you could save room to eat your words later, Chief.”  The bunny got up, turned around and then held still.  Nick stood a table-length behind her.  As the bunny had been caught by Wolfard actually yelling at Tora, he’d likely gone to get her mate to back her up.  The doe wasn’t sure what he’d heard, but she strode purposefully out of the cafeteria.

 

“Wilde,” the tigress greeted him with a nod.

 

“Chief Tora,” he returned professionally, and then turned and followed the bunny out.

 

Judy made her way to the bullpen and helped herself to the water cooler.  She’d stick to tuna salad and the salty fish thing she had in the interior.  Sushi did nothing for her.  Still, it was worth it.

 

“Did you just challenge Chief Tora to a fight, Fluff?” Nick asked incredulously.  “Please tell me you didn’t.”

 

“She challenged me, actually.” Judy said curtly.

 

“She… Oh my God, and you went for it?  That didn’t throw up any red ‘this is a trap’ flags?” her vulpine sweetheart inquired.

 

“Maybe refusing it would have been the trap,” Judy stated.

 

“There is not going to be a win for you, no matter how this goes, you know.  There can’t be.”  The fox crossed his arms.  “Why would she even hassle you.  I thought she respected you because you’re so dreadfully dull in the shift assignment meetings.”

 

“Nick, not allowing you to hide a catnip scented baggie in her podium is not me being boring,” Judy informed, “… and besides.  She likes you.  She said so.  She thinks I’m the one who is full of crap and out to get myself killed.”

 

“At least I’m not going to try to pound her head into a mat!”  The fox gestured wildly.

 

“I’m all on board for the getting, by the way,” Judy clarified.

 

“I can’t  _get_ her if she eats you in the ring, Carrots!” Nick flailed a bit at that.  “It’ll look like reprisal!  That’s a whole different level of reprimand!”

 

“Then I’ll just have to eat her first,” Judy grinned.

 

“My next meeting with Carlisle’s gonna be so awkward.”  Nick pulled his ears back.  “Retract it.  Or I’ll retract it for you.  You are not fighting Chief Tora.  It’s not gonna happen.”

 

“I’m gonna do it.”  Judy grinned.

 

“Guys!  What the heck’s goin’ on?” cried Clawhauser as he panted, entering the bullpen a bit out of breath despite being a full two uniform sizes down.

 

“We aren’t arguing,” Judy snapped, a little on edge about how her and Nick’s conversations looked to the other officers after what Fangmeyer and his mate had been talking about.

 

“No, I mean, with this!”  The portly cheetah held up his phone.  It was an email on the office email server to everyone.

 

_Attention:  All Precinct 1 Officers_

_Sergeant Judith L. Hopps Wilde will meet with Chief Mayumi Tora for a full contact sparring match at the Precinct One Gymnasium tomorrow morning at ten.  This message is a courtesy for any officers who may have lent something to the bunny and wish to retrieve it while she remembers having it._

_Thank you._

 

Nick gave a worried squeak as he read that.

 

“She’s not going to actually hurt me, Nick.  She wants to just prove that I’m not unbeatable.  She wants everyone to know it.”  Judy turned around.  “And you know what?  I’m perfectly fine with this.  I’m tired of everyone looking at me as the bunny that creamed a bear.  I’m not mean, and I’m not extreme in my use of force.  I just use more than mammals expect from a bunny.”

 

Clawhauser, having caught his breath, whimpered, “Bogo’s gonna have a stroke when he sees this!  It went to all of the precinct and he’s still on the mailing list!”

 

“Well, that’s more on Tora, honestly,” Nick dismissed.

 

“I’m supposed to be keeping you two out of trouble while he’s Mayor!” whined the big cat.  

 

“Wait, is that why we keep getting these weird calls?” Nick asked the cheetah.

 

“Maybe a little!”  Judy flinched at that.  It was Clawhauser and Bogo doing that, and not Tora.  That was not expected.

 

“Well, don’t do that!” Nick fired back.

 

“I mean, the cases are still what’s happening around you guys, it’s not like I wouldn’t have to give them to someone, but… Come on, a fight?  That’s like… fifty-years-ago stuff!”

 

“She asked for it,” Judy stated.

 

“The email doesn’t say that!” Clawhauser groaned.  “Everyone who knows Judy’s gonna think she challenged Tora.”

 

“Bogo will put a stop to it.”  Nick breathed a sigh of relief suddenly.  “The message went to Bogo.  That’s great.  He’ll step in and fix this.  It was actually… It was genius, really.  Tora didn’t want this, and that’s her graceful out.”  Nick leaned back, smiling.

 

Clawhauser’s phone rang at that exact moment with a sweet piano version of Gazelle’s new hit, ‘Unified’.  The cheetah straightened up as if afraid of being found slouching.

 

“It’s him, so I guess we’ll get your answer pretty quickly,” the big cat half-whispered.

 

“I think he’d call Tora to have her cancel it,” Judy said, but was immediately crestfallen.  She wanted a chance to save face by at least meeting with Tora in the ring.

 

“Benjamin Clawhauser,” Ben greeted sunnily.

 

“Clawhauser.  Is that email actually from Interim Chief Tora?  Has working with those two driven her insane after just a few  _weeks_?”  His tone was very stern.  It was always very stern.

 

“Yessir,” answered the cheetah.  “Well…” he snapped a glance at his present friends, “… I mean that she sent it.  I don’t know about… insane.”

 

“I need you to do me a favor, Clawhauser.”  Again his tone was so solid and commanding.  Judy listened.  Nick smiled, nodding. It sounded like he was definitely going to try to fix the situation.  It was a bit of a sting to Judy.  It meant that she had to get bailed out.  The context of the email made it seem that she was at fault for it.  It wasn’t fair.  The Chief challenged her!  She accepted the challenge from her commanding officer.  There was nothing wrong with what she did.  Would she face being reprimanded?  Would Tora fall out of favor with the ‘Mayor’ and feel the need to make things harder on team Wilde?  What a mess.  She just wanted to stand up and not be pushed around.  That was okay, wasn’t it?  Would Nick be mad at her?  It seemed like he already was.  At least, he was worried about her, and that wasn’t fun either.

 

“Yessir… Anything you need,” the friendly feline responded compliantly.

 

The mayor growled on the other side, “I need you to open a charity betting pool.  Money will go to the Literary Expansion Fund, like last time.  Put two-hundred and fifty on Hopps for me.”


	4. Lesson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been kept busy by life of late, but hope to get into at least a bi-monthly posting schedule. 
> 
> Also, a quick shout out to those assisting me with beta work on these chapters, and lots of valuable feedback. J.N. Squire and Erinneyes do tons for me to help me get this story to you in the quality and, life allowing, the speed you have grown accustomed to. I couldn't do it alone.

 

****Guardian Blue: Season Three** **

_ _Episode 4:  Lesson_ _

_ _

 

“I once sold a skunk-butt rug to a violent crime boss, so believe me when I tell you, Fluff, this is a terrible idea.”  Her partner’s voice was pleading.  Judy sighed wearily.  It had been relentless for the first hour of their shift.  The doe had taken to just listening to the fox and not replying.  He continued.  “She’s a __tactician__ , Carrots!  You have to know she’s planned this out.  There isn’t a win available to you here!  If you back out now and just say it isn’t a professional way to address these concerns, and concede only that you will be more __prudent__ in physical engagements, Tora’s point will be made.  She’ll feel that sense of control over the department that she apparently thinks she’s lacking.  You can do this and keep your dignity intact!”

 

“I’m gonna face her in the ring, Nick.”  The bunny spoke calmly as she turned onto the on-ramp to the beltway between the Canal District and tundra town.

 

“Please, Judy.  If you fight her, there are two scenarios.  The first one, you show up for the fight and she makes her point then that you are reckless beyond any level of sanity.  You are agreeing to fight a tiger highly trained in the martial arts without hesitation here.  The second is where she goes ahead and fights you just for the added public humiliation of it and then makes the __same point__.”

 

“You forget the third scenario,” Judy mentioned glumly, glancing back at her fox.  He raised a brow.  “You know… the one where Tora is face down on the mat and I inform my coworkers that ‘Rest assured, they can actually count on Sergeants Wilde’.”

 

“They __know__ they can count on you, but they’re not __asking__ you to fight tigers, Fluff!” Nick huffed.

 

The bunny dropped her head to the steering wheel as she rolled to a stop in heavy traffic. She hated this stretch of freeway.  “They have to know I’m __willing__.  I can’t let Chief Tora make the implication that I’m not.  It serves only to demoralize the whole department.”

 

“ _ _Please__ be willing to consider my feelings on this?” he offered hesitantly.  It sounded as if he felt that probably wouldn’t matter.  Judy wilted a bit at that sentiment.  Of course his feelings mattered.  However, she was prepared for him to play this particular card.

 

“I believe we had this conversation before when you were so determined on ‘getting’ the Chief of Police.”  She looked at her partner with narrow eyes.

 

“Wait?  Is __that__ what this is about?!” cried Nick, flailing a bit in the passenger seat.  “Well boom!  It’s done!  The getting is considered gotten!  All done with that!  Is that what you wanted?” he asked in clear exasperation.  Judy widened her eyes at her fox.  She honestly hadn’t expected him to just drop it like that, but the intention was touching to her to be sure.  He would do literally anything to protect her.  She had hoped to not go over her exact intentions with this because she worried Nick would still try to talk her out of it, but his level of desperate worry for her made that impossible.  

 

“Do you trust me?” she pressed, calling back the response she got from Nick when she voiced her original objection to the getting.

 

“Yes,” Nick said solidly.

 

“Then trust that I can handle Tora.  Don’t worry about me, Nick.  I don’t intend to literally duke it out with the Chief.  I have other plans.  I can’t make my point unless I show up, though.  You need to trust me on this.”

 

The poor fox whined at that.  It pained Judy, but she and Nick had made an agreement from the very beginning.  Work was work.  They would not let their relationship guide all their choices where work was concerned.  The bunny felt certain that Tora would not risk the public outrage of actually injuring the smaller officer, and she had considered carefully the options that she had before her.  The bunny knew how she wanted to proceed with this.

 

“Judy… I’ll support you… you know I will.  Just… please be careful.  I don’t like the idea of the Chief using this to make things worse for you.”  

 

“Baker 914, this is dispatch.”  Clawhauser’s voice rang out over the radio, making Judy jump slightly.

 

“Dispatch, this is Baker 914, go ahead, dispatch,” Nick responded.

 

“10-25 for 10-31 at 2045 Robinwood Road,” came the call.  Judy moved to pull out of the parking lot.  This meant they were to proceed to a location in Happytown for a criminal activity call.

 

“Do we know the nature of the call?” asked Nick over the radio.

 

“Possible stolen goods discovered on location,” was the reply.  Judy pulled onto the road and headed for that location.

 

“At least it won’t be something weird again, hopefully,” Nick sighed.  The bunny could tell he wanted to just drop the earlier heavy discussion.  She felt awful that she was not able to concede to Nick in this, but there were some things that had to be exclusively hers to handle.

 

They moved swiftly, but quietly into the outskirts of Happytown.  They were not told to roll with sirens.  The pair would be assigned to this area for however long Tora deemed it necessary.  The place was actually a collection of neighborhoods that was named the way it was because at some point some overpaid public relations professional came up with the idea that applying a positive name to a place would increase the sense of value.  They felt it would draw more businesses in and ease tensions created by the economic disparity of the region.  

 

That idea ultimately failed, and it just wasn’t worth it to spend the tax revenue to change the signs back.  As Judy rolled along the quiet street that they had been called to, she saw the usual signs of an area that wasn’t doing as well as the majority of the city.  Piles of trash because the sanitation companies skipped or under-tended the area, mammals clutching very large beers very early in the day and not really going anywhere, a brown bear asleep literally just off a sidewalk.  At least… Judy hoped he was just sleeping.  No one walking by seemed worried.  He dizzily rolled over, likely drunk.  She gritted her teeth.  

 

“Ah, Happy Town.  Been a while since I was here,” Nick narrated as they drove along.

 

“I’ve been through here a few times on patrol, but it was just for wellness checks and the like.”

 

“This is usually Fangmeyer’s beat.  He’s got a good reputation here,” Nick offered.

 

“I wish more businesses would show an interest in the area.  It would help a lot.  Bring some money and some improvements.”

 

“It’s not that easy, love…” Nick said softly.  The doe perked her ears at his affectionate tone.  He was regarding some of the boarded up homes.  This was a mostly residential area full of old trees, cluttered yards, broken fences, and no trespassing signs.

 

“Money seems like a simple enough solution to the problem of ‘no one’s got money’,” expressed Judy.

 

“Often, when you push a bunch of outside money into a poor area,” Nick explained, taking his sunglasses off, “You only attract mammals with more money into the area, and ultimately the ones who had less money get forced out.  That’s where you get the real spike in crime.  Mixing the haves with the have-nots.  Then, the have-nots become a problem that the haves need to solve.  And that’s how this happens.”  The fox pointed to the row of boarded up houses.  “Now, the places here are too expensive for poor Zootopians because of the nice shops two streets up, but no one who __could__ afford these homes wants to live here because of the slum two streets down.”  Judy dropped her ears back.  

 

Okay, Nick had a pretty good grasp of the place.  She knew he would, but that was considerably more complicated and depressing than she originally understood.  She supposed a lot of details were like that.  At a glance it seems like it would be simple to solve a problem which made so many mammals unhappy.  But in the end, if that problem had been around for such a long time, obviously some great mammals had already likely taken a crack at it and there the problem still was.  It was like Nick said.  It’s not always that easy.

 

“So, what do we do?” the doe inquired.

 

“The long game,” her mate replied.  “We help everyone we can, and encourage the rest to help someone else.  Remember your speech?  ‘Change starts with you’?  We can’t fix everything, but maybe we can give some encouragement to those who will.  You just passed the place.”  Judy shook her head and slowed down, driving a little further and taking a u-turn.  Nick being inspirational so suddenly had completely derailed the bunny.  

 

The place, it turned out, was an obviously closed gas station.  Judy and her partner carefully got out of the car.  An otter shuffled over toward them from a small convertible parked outside.  It was a slender female otter with a pink flower over her right ear.  

 

“Are you the one who called?” the bunny inquired.  The otter stopped short, almost stumbling.

 

“Oh.  Oh goodness.  Officer Hopps.  And Wilde!  Wow.”  She smoothed down a simple blue sleeveless blouse and put her little thumbs in her pockets self consciously.  Judy was used to it by now.  Most folks relaxed after a couple of minutes of Judy just being an actual cop.  

 

“Saves on introductions for one side at least.  You are?” Nick asked.  Her green eyes locked with him.

 

“Kris.  Kris Fisher.”  She nodded, still staring at the fox.  Was she nervous about him?  Usually other predators weren’t.

 

“What’s going on, Kris?” Judy distracted her.  She yanked her eyes away from Nick and stared at the bunny.

 

“Huh?  Whuh?”  She blinked.  “Oh!  Yes!  My dad won this gas station in an estate auction and he sent me to check it out.  When I got here… I mean… something really strange is going on.  It’s full of cheese.”

 

“The gas station?” prodded Nick to clarify.  She looked back at the taller mammal.

 

“Yes.”

 

“Full of Cheese,” the fox further qualified.

 

“So much Cheese.”

 

“Cover me, bunny, I’m goin’ in.”  Nick made a beeline for the door.  Judy rolled her eyes and snagged Nick’s tail.  He whined.

 

“Hey, don’t grab his tail!” scolded the otter in a huffy tone.  Judy blushed.  It was so easy to forget that it wasn’t a thing just anyone did.

 

“It’s alright, Kris,” Nick chuckled.  “I was being silly.  Let’s check out what’s going on.”  He motioned for Judy.  Kris, seeming suddenly rooted in place, stayed in the parking lot as Judy followed her partner.

 

“Hey, sorry about that.  I just… I forget that’s… not okay.”  She felt genuinely bad about having done it.  It was technically a PDA for all it was worth.

 

“It’s alright, fluff.  Remember, we aren’t hiding it anymore.  Public record now.”

 

“Yeah, but that’s behavior I can’t do in uniform.  I need to be at least… conscious of that.”  She followed Nick in as he opened the door.  It did  _ _not__ look like a gas station from inside.  There were rows of cold chests and the whole place was pretty chilly.

 

Nick spoke up as he took in the scene.  “Climate control.  This is definitely not set up like a gas station… But it looks like the boxes are kind of new.  And oh yeah, I smell cheese.  I’m in heaven.  Please… Wait outside fluff.  I’m gonna do something unethical.”

 

“Nick!” hissed Judy.

 

“Alright, alright, you know I’m teasing.”  He opened one of the heavy boxes.  Judy found some pipes leading from outside blowing cold air.

 

“I hear a generator.  They aren’t on the grid Nick.  Whoever’s doing this probably never owned the building.

 

“Squatters using this to make cheese to sell, maybe?” he considered.  “Wait… What?”  The fox picked up a large white block wrapped in clear plastic.  “This cheese has names.”

 

“Named cheese?” repeated the bunny, moving over closer.  The one Nick held said ‘Grace Bovinia’.  He picked up another, and it read ‘Linsey Guernsey’.

 

“Sounds like they have some high end cheese here,” Judy observed.

 

“Illegal,” Nick clarified.

 

“What?” prompted Judy.

 

“Seriously?  The college graduate and valedictorian doesn’t see the significance?”

 

“Come on Nick, no fooling around, just fill me in!” Judy protested.

 

“Be nice to him!” complained Kris, entering.  Normally she would have told Kris to go back outsie, but she was technically there as a representative of the owner of the property.  She had a right to be there, crime scene or not.

 

“He’s teasing me!” Judy returned, perhaps bordering on the unprofessional.

 

“She’s usually super nice to me!” Nick laughed knowingly.

 

The little lady otter gasped.  “No, it’s not right!  I get that she’s big in the news, but you do just as much, she can’t just talk down to you!” the otter squeaked.  Judy dropped her ears hard and frowned.  Was she really giving the public impression that she was mistreating Nick?  That was awful!

 

“So, why is this cheese illegal, Nick?” asked Judy, trying to pry that incorrect assumption away.

 

“I am also curious…” the otter admitted.

 

“It’s not just a label, Judy.  This cheese is named.  As in, it advertises coming from a celebrity.”  He held up another block of cheese, orange this time.  It said ‘Kari’.

 

“Can’t whoever the label is for just say publicly they never sold dairy?” posed Kris.  It was not uncommon to find cheese, but the law, Judy remembered right that moment, stated that it was always an anonymous donation.  The reason was that a sufficiently famous mammal like the former model, Grace Bovinia, could use her name to literally corner the market on cheese and make it so other mammals who offered even a superior product could not hope to enter the market.

 

“They could deny it if they were alive,” stated Nick coldly.  A soft gasp from Kris alarmed Judy, and she tensed up, half expecting that her partner had just found a body in the next cold chest he’d opened.  The fox clarified casually, “All of the mammals whose names are on this cheese are dead.”

 

“Wait, what?” dropped Judy.

 

“They are actresses, models, painters… famous mammals who will never have another salad.”  Nick peeled open a block of cheese with the name “Reba Cudd” on it.

 

“Hey, don’t open that!” cried the bunny, who then gasped in horror and a helping of revulsion as her fox took a bite and chewed slowly.

 

“Mnnnh… thought so.  Fake.  Completely fake.”

 

“How can you tell?” asked the otter girl in a completely mystified voice.  She did not seem upset about the vulpine pushing weird  illegal cheese into his maw.

 

“Taste.  This is new cheese.  It’s just not as advertised.  They’ve used enzymes for parm to create ‘aged cheddar’.  It’s literally not even trying.  It’s just… let’s make something taste different and call it old.”  Judy’s eyes shot open wider.  She knew Nick liked dairy products, but she was not fully aware how deep that went.

 

“Wow… That’s amazing!” squeaked Kris in a way that chilled Judy’s blood.  Oh that was layered with all kinds of affection.  The bunny sucked in a breath and forced back her unexpected and unwanted wave of jealousy.  This was __not__  a threat to her.  Nothing was.

 

“How old __should__ that be?” pondered Judy.

 

“Cudd has been gone a long time, Judy.  It would be legitimately old.  I’ m talking about 25 years.  This is a black market bootleg fake cheese factory.  Oh wow.  No way.  Not cool.”  Nick held up another.

 

“Swinton Premier?” asked Judy.  

 

“Like… the late mayoral candidate?!” hissed the otter with distress.

 

“Her picture’s on the label!” indicated Nick with disgust.

 

“Swinton didn’t even __have__ kids!  How the heck was she makin’ cheese!?” cried Judy.

 

“Sometimes a Secret can be profitable,” Nick read from the label.  “We may never know the heir to the Swinton legacy, but you will know the flavor of her sacrifice for the great city of Zootopia.”

 

“Oh that is just the…” Kris gasped.

 

“That’s the most horrible bottom feeding thing I’ve ever heard!” Judy exclaimed.  “The dirt on her grave’s not even settled yet!”

 

“It’s heartless!” cried Kris.

 

“It’s greed at its worst!” Judy answered.

 

“It’s unconscionable!” shouted the little otter.

 

“It’s actually goat cheese,” Nick stated knowingly.

 

“ _ _Stop eating that__!” cried Judy.  How could he?!  He didn’t know anything about this stuff!  He was munching on evidence!

 

“I’m investigating!” Nick claimed, putting the open Swinton Premier down.

 

“Wait, my dad’s new gas station is a crime scene?” cried the otter.

 

“Afraid so…” Judy stated.

 

“He’s gonna be so upset!” she whined.

 

Judy stared into those pleading green otter eyes and spoke sympathetically.  “We will try to get all this… garbage… out of here.”  She shot Nick a look of irritation, then regarded Kris again.  “… but the detectives are gonna need to open an investigation.”

 

“I’ve already texted Pawlander.  He’s literally two hours out,” Nick stated.  “Can I try this… wait… what?”  Nick picked up a tiny cube.

 

“No, Nick, don’t eat that,” sighed Judy.

 

“No.  Just… no.  ‘Hopps Hoppin’ Cheddar’,” Nick stated darkly.

 

“The Hell you say!” Judy was at her partner’s side in an instant.  The label was clear.  There was a ZPD badge right on the damned cheese label.

 

“Oh my God…” Kris whispered.

 

“I’m not dead!” cried Judy.  “How can they sell this?!”

 

Kris read the label.  “She gave everything for the city she loved.  To protect her family, she kept it a secret.  Now, you get to sample our sharpest cheddar ever.”

 

“I didn’t die!” shouted Judy, genuinely enraged.

 

“Carrots… They’re saving this for when you do.  Shoot, look…”  Nick held up another.

 

“Gouda Gazelle… What the heck?” Judy grumbled.

 

“They are saving this stuff to sell right when these mammals pass away,” the fox explained.

 

“Really?!” cried Kris.  “Throw all of this in the dumpster!  These… These sickos can’t get away with it!”

 

“Don’t you dare eat that!” Judy growled at Nick.

 

“I don’t even know what bunny cheese tastes like, just the milk,” Nick revealed.  He dropped the Judy cheddar in the cold box.

 

“Wait, what?” deadpanned Kris.

 

“Cute, Nick.  Sorry Kris, this will probably not be ready today.  I will give your info to Pawlander, our detective.”

 

The otter girl sighed softly.  “It’s alright, I didn’t want to try to clean out a closed down gas station today anyway, but my dad wants to make a game store out of this.  He won’t be happy that criminals moved into it.”

 

Nick spoke softly, “I would ask that since this is a crime scene, you actually head home and let us do our work.  We’ll get in touch with you and let you know when its okay to start cleaning up.  Based on what I see, you won’t have much left here to have to clean after we clear out the contraband.”  The fox nodded at that advice given.

 

The otter giggled.  “Oh, you don’t even have to __ask__ for my number, officer Wilde, you were gonna get it no matter what!” laughed Kris, wriggling a bit in a fashion that Judy could comprehend as physically possible only because she was an otter.  The doe rolled her eyes.  This was a part of celebrity that she hoped would not be going to her partner’s head.

 

“Thank you,” Nick responded professionally.  The small otter gave the fox her info and headed back toward her little car.  The bunny watched her drive away, the little aquatic mammal wearing a contented grin despite the bad news she was taking home.  

 

“I think she likes you,” Judy announced to her partner as he glanced down at his little note book.

 

“She dots her i’s with hearts, Fluff.  I don’t even know a __bunny__ who does that,” he sighed.

 

“Jessie used to write her name with a heart as the ‘o’ in Hopps.” explained Judy as they headed back to the car to wait for a detective to get on scene.  They would need to remain for observation of the property to make sure whoever was responsible for the illicit cheese house did not come back to tamper with evidence.

 

“That’s actually worse,” Nick laughed.

 

“I think its about the same,” Judy commented.

 

Her partner smirked.  “Oh?  Well, let’s do a little experiment.  Every time you write my name on your next report, put little hearts over the ‘i’… but on the one after that, use a heart in the place of the ‘o’ in ‘police’.”  Judy gave an uncharacteristic loud single laugh and covered her muzzle.  For some reason the idea of her doing the second one was way funnier to her.

 

“Okay, you made your point,” Judy chuckled.

 

“Well, we managed to get another weird one.  Clawhauser could not possibly have planned that,” Nick pointed out.

 

“And now we’re stuck here for almost half our shift, most likely,” the doe sighed.

 

“At least it’s not a stakeout with Higgins.”

 

“... After 40 pounds of spicy cabbage,” Judy added with a laugh.

 

“Mmmm, kimchi,” her partner drawled.

 

“Now I’m hungry,” Judy observed.

 

“Well, I happen to know there’s some cheese in there with your name on it,” Nick smirked.  Judy groaned and dropped her head onto the bottom of the steering wheel of their cruiser.  This was going to be a long next couple of hours.

 

 

 *************

 

 

“Have I told you that I feel like this is a bad idea?” Nick asked as he plodded along behind his bunny, posture such that it seemed he was following her to his own beat-down, not hers.

 

“Wait, what?”  Judy turned around suddenly.  “No!  You’re just telling me this now?!” she exclaimed.  Nick made a straight line of his brows.  Judy nudged his shoulder.  “It’ll be fine, Nick.  Tora goofed up.  She gave me time to think about this.”

 

“Uh, Judy, that was to give you a chance to back out gracefully, I’m pretty sure.”  Nick fell into step behind her again.  “Slow down, the emergency’s not for another… maybe twelve minutes if she decides to talk first.”

 

“I told you Nick, there won’t be a brawl.  I can handle this.”  Judy smiled at her partner encouragingly.

 

“Don’t you need to change for the fight?  You aren’t really gonna spar in that?” Nick gestured to her regular patrol uniform.

 

“Tora said it needed to be my standard duty gear, and I actually agree with her.  It needs to simulate the conditions of the field.”

 

“Oh you’re a method actor now.  Jack would be proud.”  Nick rolled his eyes.

 

“Hush you.  And try __not__ to look freaked out.  Tora’s likely to be watching you as well.”  Judy opened the door to the gym.  She faltered slightly.  It was actually pretty crowded in there.  She saw Clawhauser, Snarlov, Higgins, and Fangmeyer in the front row.  Francine was in the back as well.  There were officers in the crowd of maybe thirty she actually didn’t even know.  There were even two rat officers from the Little Rodentia precinct.  The announcement went out only to Precinct 1, but it seemed that word got out.  

 

“I’m freaking out,” Nick whispered to Judy.

 

“Quit it.  Everything’s fine,” the bunny grumbled.  She was very irritated that Tora had gone out of her way to make this a spectacle.

 

“Oh.  You actually showed up,” the tiger stated from her place in the sparring ring.  She was leaning against the ropes in a relaxed running outfit.  “I’m actually not surprised, though.  Judy Hopps does not back away from a fight.”

 

“Wilde!” came a shout from the crowd.  It sounded like Wolfard.  He was so nice.

 

Judy bounced up onto the platform of the sparring ring and padded to the center of it, arms crossed in front of her chest.  “It’s been a long day, Chief Tora.  I know a lot of these mammals are off duty and would like to head home, so we can dispense with the pleasantries.  Say what you’re gonna say.”

 

“You __really__ want to punch me out, don’t you?” gasped the tigress in obvious mock surprise.

 

“Kicking is actually more my thing,” the lapine officer replied dismissively.  A few mammals in the audience laughed.  The doe ignored it.  This was not meant to be entertainment.

 

“Yes… of course.”  Tora’s expression darkened.  “I want to begin by explaining to the officers gathered that no, I do not __dislike__ officer Hopps as a mammal.  I will not hear any talk to the contrary.”  She glared at a fixed point in the audience.  The bunny wondered if someone had voiced disapproval.  Maybe Wolfard was getting to the end of his tolerance.

 

Judy spoke up, wanting to end misgivings there and then.  “I will confirm to those gathered,” she peered out at the curious eyes all upon her.  “Tora and I have discussed her concerns about my approach to policing.  We have a simple difference of opinion on what she sees as a failure to fall back as often as she interprets I should.  She worries about how my being harmed on the job would affect morale.”

 

Tora cut in, an edge to her voice.  “… aaaand also, how it will affect my ability to lead the department.  How it will affect your family.  How it will affect the officer that called you out there, as a supervisor, to help them.  Will they resist calling for backup when they need it because they don’t want to see their backup harmed by what they later deem as __their__ inability to maintain control over a risky situation?  This is not about you alone, Hopps.”

 

“Wilde!” yelled a female officer.  Judy didn’t even recognize that voice.

 

Judy interrupted, “Look, we’re all here to do the same job.  And none of us are supposed to believe that we’re doing it alone.  If backup is needed, I will be there for my fellow officers whether they call for me or not… before, during, and after the incident.”  Judy glared at Tora.  There was applause.  This was not supposed to be entertaining.  Tora was __trying__ to make the other officers reconsider putting her in danger.  She could not control Judy, so perhaps she could control them.  While Tora might feel justified due to however she felt about Judy’s perceived vulnerability in the field, Judy decided it was ultimately about how the Chief would be viewed in the worst case scenario.  The doe could understand.  It wasn’t something she could fault Tora for feeling, but her visible lack of support for her smallest officers was going to prove more harmful to the department overall.  Of this, the doe was certain.

 

The tiger waged a paw casually at her bunny subordinate in the ring.  “I concede that you do genuinely think you are doing what’s right for the department, yes.”  Tora’s agreement there surprised Judy a little.  “… However, you are reckless beyond the point of frustration, even to Bogo.  Your first three days on the job were filled with more close calls than I experienced in my first three years, and I was pretty aggressive in my youth.”

 

“My first days saw little support from the department.  If you’ve read the reports, you know that,” Judy countered.

 

“And even less regard for protocol,” insisted the tigress.

 

“For which I was justifiably reprimanded,” the rabbit clarified.  “When was my last reprimand?”

 

“Learning the rules did not change your attitude toward your own safety, Hopps,” grumbled Tora.

 

“Wilde!” came the cry from almost everyone.  The tone for most was playful in what might have been perceived as a running gag, while a few voices sounded genuinely annoyed.

 

“What are the rules of engagement here?” pressed Judy, arms still crossed.  She wasn’t going to let Tora’s insistence on calling her by her unmarried name distract from the point.  “It’s a simulation, right?”  Tora moved to the corner of the ring and pushed her large tiger paws into a canvas bag.  She drew them out.  There was white chalk on them.

 

The tigress glared.  “Very well.  The rules are simple.  I will not be using my claws, obviously, so if you get white on you from my paws, it counts as a hit.  If I hit you in a spot that you likely would have not survived had my claws been involved, the match is over, and so is the bunny.  My point that you will eventually encounter a foe you can’t handle will be set in stone.  Everyone here needs to understand that __very real__ point.”

 

“What’s the situation?” Judy asked.

 

“I’m attacking a police officer,” deadpanned the Chief.

 

The bunny shook her head.  “No.  Not enough.  I would be unlikely to be involved in a use of force incident with utterly no knowledge of the situation.  Where are we?  Why did I come here?  How far out is backup?  Where is my partner?”  This, Judy felt, was part of the issue.  Tora seemed to think that Judy never thought about the risk and her options.  She always did.  Nothing was entirely unplanned, even if she had to make choices quickly.

 

“Alright, fine.”  The tiger stood in the center of the ring.  “You came out on a disturbance call.  A tiger with emotional problems stopped taking medication.  You radioed for backup upon arriving at the scene, an apartment building, and finding other mammals in the process of fleeing the building.”

 

“I’m not going into that building without backup, Tora.  Even if I were reckless, I know the protocol for that situation.”

 

“You hear a cub screaming inside,” the tigress elaborated.  There was a collective groan.  Immediate public safety.  It would force an officer’s paw in such a situation so that they had to act more quickly.  This was a hard scenario for Judy.

 

The bunny gave a drawn out sigh.  “You realize that you just gave the __exact__ reason you think I’m reckless in the first place, right?” the doe asked.  “I follow the guidelines for this kind of scenario and I go inside to try to help the kit or cub, screaming innocent victim… and you get to say I’m being foolish.  I’m here first.  I’m a ZPD officer.  I’m going in.  Fine.  Where’s my partner?”

 

“The moment you get onto the steps of the apartment building I crashed through a second story window and land on Officer Wilde.  You don’t know his condition, but he’s not getting up.”  Judy felt an agonizing tightening of her heart.  Okay, yeah… she would be a __lot__ less likely to fall back and wait for help in this situation.  Her immediate instinct would be to get the tiger away from her partner before he or she could do more damage.  She had attacked Motti without hesitation in The Interior for a similar reason.  But Nick would do the same.  Fangmeyer would do the same.  Even Higgins would do the same.  It wasn’t specifically protocol, but that’s how it was.

 

“Alright…” Judy stared at the tigress.  “So, you’ve taken out my partner, and I’m left on the steps of the apartment with help too far away and no immediate cover.  You have fashioned a scenario where you know without a doubt I will not back down.  You’ve thought this out.”

 

“As often you do not,” replied Tora.

 

Judy ignored that last swipe.  “What are the conditions for my victory in this fight?  Obviously I don’t have claws for you to worry about, so putting dust on my paws isn’t going to mean anything.”

 

“Right… If you can knock me off my feet or I end up out of the ring in this fight without you sustaining a life-threatening injury, we will have established at least that you might last until help arrives.  Do you have all the information that you need?”  Tora was obviously __trying__ to be patient, but Judy hadn’t expected that she would give a detailed scenario the way she did.  It suggested that she was willing to entertain the idea that Judy did think about these things.

 

“Yes,” Judy responded.

 

“Do you have any other questions for me?” grumbled the Chief.

 

“Well, are there any medications that you are allergic to in the event that a medic is needed?” inquired the bunny.  The room boomed with the laughter of larger mammals.

 

“No, I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine,” Tora growled.

 

“Very well.  Begin the scenario then,” Judy stated.

 

“Agreed.  Begin,” the Chief accepted.  Judy tensed up, squaring off with the tiger only two body-lengths away from the bunny she intended to ‘kill’ on the mat.  There wasn’t a sound from the audience.  The soft creaking of the ceiling fan, loose in it’s housing, was all that could be heard.  Well, that and Higgins breathing.  That was pretty much always audible.  Tora gave a very low, threatening rumble of a growl.  It reminded Judy of the first time she’d had a run-in with a large predator.  Manchas.  She __did__ retreat then, initially.  Ultimately she confronted that big cat too, in order to save Nick.  The scenario was not that different here.  Big cat, save Nick.

 

There was suddenly a dull thump behind Tora.  The tiger turned to check in a manner that made Judy feel like maybe the Chief’s phone fell out of her pocket or something.  The bunny tilted her head though, able to see it wasn’t a phone at all.  There was a very large, long, dark green cucumber  inexplicably resting on the mat.

 

“Nyaaaa!!” screeched Tora, her voice a near shriek or terror.  She dived for the edge of the ring and rolled right out onto the floor.  Judy cringed at that.  It was a vegetable!  What the heck?!  She immediately glared at Nick, but found he looked believably shocked too.  She could swear that was the kind of thing he’d have done.  He could do research and learn that the Chief had a phobia of produce and would then prank her at the start of the match to throw her off guard.  That was classic fox.

 

“Out!” cried Wolfard with a laugh, and the whole room was booming again.

 

“No!  Absolutely not!” shouted Tora, getting everyone to shut up immediately.  “Wilde!”

 

“Yes?” asked Judy calmly.  More laughter.  This was not starting well for Tora, but if Nick had thrown that cucumber, it would be a bad day for them both.  Judy didn’t want that.  He __had__ to have known that!

 

“That!”  She pointed at a stunned-looking fox.  “A month of Parking Duty!” she shouted.

 

“It wasn’t me!” shouted Nick, flailing a bit.

 

“It __had__  to be you!” growled Tora.  “Half the audience is here recording it.  You have to know I will find out who it was!”  

 

“It wasn’t me!” the fox insisted.  Judy dropped her ears back as Tora climbed back into the ring and kicked the cucumber out hard.

 

“If it wasn’t Wilde, then whoever did that, leave right now.  You just excused yourself from the match.  If you make me look at the video to figure it out, I’ll be assigning you traffic duty.”

 

Judy watched in absolute breathless shock as Clawhauser got up and shuffled toward the door.

 

“Wait, really?” murmured Tora, seeming just as dumbfounded.

 

“Don’t worry Ben, we’re recording it!” Wolfard laughed.

 

“Thanks, guys.”  The cheetah still seemed glum about missing the match.  The double doors thudded shut behind him hollowly.  Judy couldn’t believe __Clawhauser__ would have done that!  The other officers were quiet, careful not to get into the angry Chief’s cross-hairs after that.

 

“So, obviously tricks from the spotted peanut gallery do not count, and our match will proceed.  Nothing’s changed.  Any other interruptions from anyone, regardless of how funny or well-intentioned, will be met with parking duty.”  Judy quirked an eyebrow.  Was she honestly admitting that Clawhauser’s joke was funny?  Tora continued, “Also, the first mammal who loads that scene on Ewetube is looking at suspension.”  Her face was chiseled with determination.  “Understood?!”

 

“Yes Ma’am!” came the unified shout.  The bunny hoped that the cheetah did not get into too much trouble for that.  She wondered if maybe Nick had put him up to it, but dismissed that.  The fox would never let their portly coworker take the fall for a joke he had to have __wished__  he thought of himself.  She also couldn’t let that distraction change how she intended to handle this.

 

“Now then.  Hopps.”  The anxiousness increased again, and no one tried to correct the Chief this time.  She was angry.  They knew it.

 

“Yes, Ma’am.”  Judy lowered her arms, getting ready.

 

“One chance to save the life of your partner, or your own.  Fleeing the ring and keeping space between you and your assailant is an option here.  You know that it is.”

 

“You know that it’s not.  I’m not letting him, or any of them, die.”  Judy felt the opportunity was right to make her case.  She’d do it for any of her fellow officers.  They needed to know that.  Yes, it still made Tora’s point… that any of them needing her might result in Judy being put in this life or death situation, but that held true for Wolfard or McHorn coming to __her__ aid as well.  It might be slightly less likely, but they were not invincible.  Officers were injured during the Battle of Trunkapalooza, as it was called.  They rushed in to help.  It was what they were trained to do.  Tora meant well, but she had to learn to depend on her officers.  All of them.

 

“Know that I appreciate your professionalism in this, Judy.  I hope this doesn’t color your opinion of me negatively.  I care deeply for all the officers under me.  This… is a lesson in mortality.  Never throw away what you have given to this city.  You are not expendable.  A sacrifice is sometimes needed, but not every time.”  The tiger took a step toward Judy, then growled, signaling aggression.  She lowered a bit, preparing to lunge at Judy.

 

The doe answered.  “I understand and appreciate what you wish to convey, Chief Tora,” she stated calmly as the tiger advanced menacingly, teeth bared.  Tora’s dusty paws were held at ready to knock the bunny out of the ring.  Every officer remained utterly still and quiet.  Even Higgins was noticeably holding his breath.   The bunny drew in a slow breath of her own and took stock of the moment.  Nick might have been right.  There might not be a __win__ for her in this ring with Tora, but the scenario was not that dissimilar.  Her partner was down.  He might be gone.  This would not be a winning day for the doe, but she could at least hope to survive.  That was what she intended to do.

 

“Oh please be careful.”  That was Francine Pennington’s voice.

 

The doe gazed unflinchingly at the much more massive mammal as she stepped faster toward Judy, snarling terribly.  Judy backed in a slow circle around the ring, letting the Chief stalk her menacingly.  “We all know our lives are at stake and that’s what you wish to convey… However, this is also a lesson in tactical procedure.”

 

Judy pulled her duty tranq-pistol from her utility belt and immediately fired.

 

The tiger stopped dead in her tracks and stared down at her midsection which now featured a tuft of bright red from a heavy-dose tranq dart.  Tora had told Judy to handle this the way she might an actual scenario.  The bunny would never have gone to that apartment without a tranq pistol.  She would not have physically fought the tiger if she had the less dangerous option available.  She handled this situation __exactly__ by the book.

 

“Nan…ni?” came the horrified response from the tiger before she stumbled back, then collapsed on her back in the middle of the ring with an echoing thud.

 

The gym was completely silent.

 

A few moments passed as Judy regarded the properly pacified tigress.  She did not appear to be reacting badly to the tranq, so the medics did not have to be called in.  She glanced up at her partner finally.  He was consciously about as stunned as the Chief, it appeared.  Everyone kind of shared that comical expression of shock.  Judy did it.  She shot the Chief.  In front of everyone.  She hoped the tigress would be in an understanding mood, but that really was the way that scenario should have gone down.  The only genuine way she could safely have done that in the field.

 

The bunny finally spoke, breaking the weighted silence.

 

“I respect what Chief Tora was trying to convey today, everyone.  She cares about us, and for the esteemed image of the ZPD.  She has taken, at least temporarily, the mantle of Chief of Police.  With that comes considerable prestige and also the high expectations of the entire city.  But I know all too well that with the duties of Chief, there exists a most terrible possible requirement that none but the mammal in charge must bear.  It falls to the Chief of Police to inform the loved ones, the media, the other officers when one of us is lost.  I do not blame Chief Mayumi Tora for wanting to avoid this terrible consequence of her position.  I would do… anything… to never know what it feels like.  But I do.”  The doe placed a paw over the center of her chest.  Her body armor made it impossible to actually touch the name plate she still wore around her neck.  She watched a slightly pained expression cross Nick’s face, his ears falling back.  He knew.

 

Judy took a breath to calm herself.  She had thought about this for a while.  It needed to be stated.  “I will not thoughtlessly put you all through what I watched you go through with me last summer.  However, when we put on this badge, we know it’s a possibility.”  She looked down at the slumbering chief.  One of the medics hopped up on the stage, a meerkat, who began administering the diffuser for the tranq dart.  The bunny decided to cut it short.  She did not want to be here when the tiger __fully__ woke up.  The chief’s green eyes fluttered open slightly and fixed on the bunny.

 

“Chief Tora, I hope you forgive me for the drastic measure I took today.  But, I recognize that it’s the choices I make out there in the field that mean I get to see you all at work tomorrow.  I will try to be more judicious in my use of force on duty, but this is __not__ for you alone, and not because I personally feel like I have been too reckless during some of the most extreme situations that can be thrown at an officer.  I assure you that I will do everything I can to keep coming back safe because I believe in the long game… The one where we really can make Zootopia a better place… and I can only play if I’m still here.”  Nick cupped his muzzle in his paws.

 

There was a thunderous applause for a bit and Nick rubbed his face in his paws.

 

“Wha… wee…”  The Chief tried to speak, still completely immobile on her back.  The officers went quiet, listening.

 

“Ma’am?” Judy asked, not wanting to get too close just yet.

 

“Yee… You could… have used… an unfilled cartridge…” grunted the tiger.  Judy lowered her ears back, looking down at the tiger with concern.  Well, yeah… yeah she could have done that.  But, if she had, it might have gotten back to the tiger what she intended to do.  Judy wasn’t sure how to answer that.

 

“I mean, yeah, but the point would not have been made as… effectively?” she offered.

 

“This is why… Bogo was laughing,” groaned the feline.  Judy cringed a little.  This was not really about Bogo.

 

“Ma’am?” Judy pressed again.

 

“Good match.  You are dismissed, Wilde,” she said more firmly.

 

“Err… Okay?” responded Nick.

 

The tiger dropped her head back to the mat and grinned slightly.  “Not you… the other Wilde.  Go home Sargent.  I will see you… in the bullpen… tomorrow.”


End file.
